The Russian military began preparations to conduct military drills to practice using tactical nuclear weapons on Monday, months after the country’s President Vladimir Putin made repeated threats of nuclear escalation in the event of Western military intervention in Ukraine.
File Photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is prepared to use nuclear weapons if ... [+]
Preparations for the exercise were being carried out on Putin’s orders, the Russian Defense Ministry told state-run news agency TASS.
As part of the drills, the Russian military’s “missile troops”, aircraft and naval forces will practice the deployment of “non-strategic nuclear-weapons.”
The defense ministry said the drills are being carried out in response to “provocative statements and threats by some Western officials against the Russian Federation.”
Russian authorities said the exercises will be conducted in the “immediate future” without specifying a date, although the announcement comes just a day before the inauguration of Putin’s fifth term in power.