President Vladimir Putin of Russia has ordered the country’s nuclear deterrent forces to be on high alert amid the invasion of Ukraine.
This is coming at the trail of leading NATO powers “aggressive statements” on hard-hitting financial sanctions against Russia to force them out of Ukraine.
Putin ordered the defence minister and the chief of the military’s general staff to put the nuclear deterrent forces in a “special regime of combat duty”.
This is an indication that Russia may be forced into using nuclear weapons to assert its stand.
Russian nuclear exercise took place on February 19, when Putin staged very large drills across Russia to test the country’s nuclear programme and readiness.
The Kremlin said it had successfully test-launched hypersonic and cruise missiles at sea and land-based targets. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin, also oversaw the military exercises.
Moreso, the United States has accused Russia of using nuclear threats to justify its invasion of Ukraine.
“This is a pattern that we’ve seen from President Putin through the course of this conflict, which is manufacturing threats that don’t exist in order to justify further aggression,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on ABC.
The American ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, strongly condemned Putin’s move.
On Thursday Russian troops took control of the former Chernoby nuclear plant, where radioactivity is still leaking from history’s worst nuclear disaster 36 years ago.
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