Russian President Vladimir Putin is now ordering the defense minister and the chief of staff to deploy nuclear weapons in what he calls “combat readiness”.
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The case is being updated!
The background for Putin’s order is the deteriorating relationship with the West due to the Ukraine war. In a televised speech on Sunday, Putin referred to what he called aggressive statements by NATO and the economic sanctions that Western countries have imposed on Russia.
– Western countries have not only initiated unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere. High-ranking officials in leading NATO countries have made aggressive statements related to our country, Putin said.
That is why he has ordered Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and the Chief of the General Staff to put the nuclear weapons forces in what is called “combat readiness”.
Russia and the United States are the countries in the world with by far the largest arsenals of nuclear weapons.
According to the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, it is precisely the three who were gathered for this meeting, the president, the chief of defense and the chief of the general staff, who have Russia’s nuclear suitcases. Two out of three suitcases must be activated to start a nuclear war, the newspaper writes.
Russia has in recent years acquired one large arsenal of tactical nuclear weaponswhich are new, less powerful nuclear weapons.
Ukraine: Will be a disaster for the world
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba believes that President Vladimir Putin’s order to increase preparedness related to the country’s nuclear weapons is a strategic move ahead of talks between Ukraine and Russia.
– We see it as an attempt to increase efforts and put further pressure on the Ukrainian delegation. As I said earlier, we will enter into these talks on a simple basis: We are going there to hear what Russia has to say and we want to say what we want to say, he says – and refers to the announced talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives on the border with Belarus.
–– If Putin’s order to raise the allotment on nuclear weapons is a direct threat to use those weapons against Ukraine, then I have a very simple message, he says and continues:
– It will be a disaster for the world, but it will not break us.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says in a TV interview with CNN that President Vladimir Putin’s statement to increase nuclear preparedness is irresponsible from Putin.
– This is dangerous rhetoric. It is a further aggressive rhetoric that we have seen in recent weeks, says Stoltenberg.
He says that we now see a much more dangerous Russia, and that security in the world is now in a new normal.
Expert: Scary
Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv is a professor of security studies at the Norwegian Arctic University (UiT), and believes Putin’s statement is very serious:
– It’s very scary. It is at the same time, unfortunately, not surprising. He has shown that he can not lose.
– This goes far beyond what Putin can defend, because even the threats he previously claimed existed, deserve neither invasion of other countries, nor the use of nuclear weapons. There’s something called proportionality, and it’s far beyond that.
–Her analysis is that Putin had expected the invasion to meet less resistance than it has done, and that he threatens nuclear weapons because he does not want to turn around.
– Because then he admits that he has lost.
– Is it realistic that he uses it?
– Four weeks ago I would have said no. Now I think he has gone so far now that it is difficult to know exactly where the line goes.
– Can it be a statement to show power, without intending to use it?
– Everyone knows he has it, so he does not need it. That is also why the West is wary of Russia. It is the largest nuclear-weapon country in the world. There is nothing to tamper with.
Hoogensen Gjørv envisages that the President of Ukraine Zelensky is put in a position where he may have to negotiate so that there will be a downsizing on the Ukrainian side just to avoid this.
How can a nuclear attack fade away?
– I think no one can know. But if he uses small, tactical nuclear weapons, it will affect the whole of Europe. Then there will be a lot of deaths and a lot of destruction.
Many of VG’s readers are upset by this news – what can you say to reassure them?
– What has been good is that several different actors, including NATO and individual countries such as the United States, Great Britain and Ukraine, have been very willing to negotiate and enter into discussion. This case brings together large parts of the world in a way that we have not seen in a long time that wants an end to this war.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield takes a hard line against the Russian president:
“This means that President Putin continues to escalate this war in a way that is totally unacceptable, and we must continue to stop his actions in the strongest possible way,” she told CBS television.
It is ni land one knows about who has nuclear weapons in the world today. Russia, China, the United States, Britain and France are “legal” nuclear weapons states. India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea do not report their weapons.
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