They are presented by the Russian government as a response “to threats” from Western leaders towards Moscow. Vladimir Putin has ordered nuclear exercises to be held “in the near future” involving troops based near Ukraine. “During the exercise, a series of measures will be taken to train in the preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. He added that the measure was taken “on the instructions of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”, Vladimir Putin.
According to the Russian government, this training aims to “maintain the readiness” of the army to protect the country, “in response to provocative statements and threats made against Russia by some Western officials.” The spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, questioned by AFP on the question, affirmed that these were the comments of “Emmanuel Macron”, “British representatives” and a “representative of the United States Senate, if I’m not mistaken.” These leaders “spoke about the desire and even the intention to send armed contingents to Ukraine, that is to say, to place NATO soldiers facing the Russian army,” he said. He denounces. Emmanuel Macron once again assumed at the beginning of May the possibility of sending Western troops on the ground to Ukraine if Moscow broke through “the front lines” and kyiv requested it.
These maneuvers will notably involve the Russian air force and navy. But also forces from the Southern Military District of Russia, which is based very close to Ukraine and notably covers Ukrainian regions, the annexation of which Moscow claims. The date and location of these exercises were not specified, as were the number of soldiers and equipment mobilized.
Already exercises in October 2023
However, these exercises are not the first organized by Moscow. In October 2023, Russia announced that Vladimir Putin had supervised the firing of ballistic missiles during military maneuvers aimed at simulating a “massive nuclear strike” in response by Moscow. During these exercises, an Iars intercontinental ballistic missile was fired from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia, and another Sineva ballistic missile from a submarine in the Barents Sea. Their outfit was made public the same day that the upper house of the Russian Parliament, the Federation Council, approved the revocation of the ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, Vladimir Putin has been blowing hot and cold on the possible use of nuclear weapons. Russia thus deployed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, its closest ally and neighbor of the European Union, during the summer of 2023. Russian nuclear doctrine provides for a “strictly defensive” use of atomic weapons, in the event of an attack on Russia with weapons of mass destruction or in the event of aggression with conventional weapons “threatening the very existence of State”.
The subject of nuclear weapons has also been raised by Emmanuel Macron in recent days, with the French president declaring that he wants to “open the debate” on a possible incorporation of France’s nuclear umbrella into a European defense project.