- Russia and Belarus have begun the second phase of tactical nuclear weapons training as part of Russian efforts to thwart Western support for Ukraine.
- Russia was infuriated after French President Emmanuel Macron said he would not rule out sending troops to Ukraine.
- Last year, Russia moved some of its tactical nuclear weapons to neighbouring Belarus, which also borders Ukraine and NATO members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.
Russia and its ally Belarus on Tuesday launched the second phase of exercises aimed at training tactical nuclear weapons, part of the Kremlin’s efforts to thwart greater Western support for Ukraine.
Announcing the nuclear drills last month, the Russian Defense Ministry said it was a response to “provocative statements and threats made by some Western officials regarding the Russian Federation.”
The Kremlin expressed outrage after French President Emmanuel Macron said he would not rule out sending troops to Ukraine and after the United States and other NATO allies gave Ukraine the go-ahead to use weapons they supplied to attack targets on Russian territory.
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“Such training and maintaining a combat readiness” was important given “hostile decisions and actions” and “daily provocations” by the United States and European allies, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
In the second phase of the drills, which began on Tuesday, the Russian and Belarusian armies will conduct joint training on non-strategic nuclear weapons to be used in combat, according to the Defense Ministry. The ministry noted that the drills are aimed at maintaining the readiness of personnel and equipment to ensure the “sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the Russian-Belarusian alliance.
The defence ministry said the first phase of the exercises last month envisaged preparations for a nuclear weapons mission and preparations for launch. Russian forces had been training separately in the early stages of the exercises ahead of joint drills with their Belarusian counterparts.
In this photo taken on June 10, 2024 and published by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, a pilot sits in the cockpit of a Russian Air Force MiG-31 fighter jet during a joint Russian-Belarusian exercise aimed at training the military in the use of tactical nuclear weapons. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Office, via Associated Press)
Russia last year moved some of its tactical nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus, which also borders Ukraine and NATO members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko relies on close ties with Russia and has offered his country as a base for the Ukrainian war.
Tactical nuclear weapons include aerial bombs, short-range missile warheads, and artillery shells, and are intended for use on the battlefield. Tactical nuclear weapons are typically less powerful than strategic weapons (those mounted on intercontinental ballistic missiles with huge warheads intended to wipe out entire cities).
But Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed out that even Russia’s battlefield nuclear weapons are far more powerful than the two atomic bombs the United States dropped on Japan at the end of World War II.
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Last week, President Putin declared that it would be a mistake for the West to act on the assumption that Russia would never use nuclear weapons.
Putin noted that Russia’s nuclear doctrine envisages the use of nuclear weapons in cases where sovereignty and territorial integrity are threatened, but stressed that the threats to Russian sovereignty do not currently justify the use of nuclear weapons and that Russia does not need nuclear weapons to defeat Ukraine.
Since sending troops into Ukraine in 2022, the Russian leader has repeatedly warned the West about his country’s nuclear capabilities.
