President Vladimir Putin kicked off a new exercise of Russia’s nuclear forces on Tuesday at a critical point in the Ukraine war, the second such drill that Moscow has held in two weeks.
The 2-1/2-year-old war is entering what Russian officials say is its most dangerous phase as Russian forces are advancing in eastern Ukraine and the West considers how to shore up Ukraine.
Russia has been signalling for weeks to the West that Moscow will respond if the United States and its allies help Ukraine fire longer-range missiles deep into Russia, while NATO says that North Korea has sent troops to western Russia.
“We will work out the actions of officials to control the use of nuclear weapons with practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles,” Putin was shown saying in a video clip announcing the drill.
In video released by the Kremlin, Putin said using nuclear weapons would be an “extremely exceptional measure” but they need to be kept ready for use.
“We will continue to improve all their components. The resources for this are available. I stress that we are not going to get involved in a new arms race, but we will maintain nuclear forces at the level of necessary sufficiency,” he said.
Read more at Reuters.com
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