President Vladimir Putin has instructed the country’s military to conduct nuclear weapons exercises involving the navy and troops stationed near Ukraine, the defense ministry announced on Monday, May 6.
The decision comes as Putin has increasingly raised nuclear rhetoric since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
In February, during his national address, he warned of a “real” risk of nuclear war.
“During the exercise, various measures will be undertaken to practice the preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons,” The defense ministry said in a message on Telegram.
The Kremlin specified that the exercises were a response to statements by French President Emmanuel Macron and British officials according to wire agencies.
Russia has in recent days hit out at Macron for telling The Economist magazine he was “not ruling anything out” in the West’s response to the war in Ukraine, including sending troops to the country.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the West is provoking an unprecedented round of tension in Ukraine, which requires Russia’s response.
Peskov called Macron’s statements about a possible deployment of troops to Ukraine an unprecedented new round of tension:
“It is necessary to check whether the information about sending French troops to Ukraine is true, the Russian Defense Ministry is dealing with this,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin has also blasted UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron for saying Kyiv has the right to strike targets inside Russia.
Non-strategic nuclear weapons, also referred to as tactical nuclear weapons, are designed for battlefield use and can be delivered via missiles.
The ministry added that the drills would be conducted “in the near future” and were intended to safeguard Russia’s territorial integrity against perceived threats from certain Western officials.
In the first days of the war with Ukraine, Putin announced the transfer of Russian nuclear forces to a “special mode” of combat alert, and six months later he threatened to use “all available means” to protect the occupied territories of Ukraine.
