The Russian army announced this Tuesday, May 21, that it had started military exercises on the use of tactical nuclear weapons, exercises ordered in early May by President Vladimir Putin. This demonstration is presented as being a “response” to comments deemed “warlike” by “certain Western leaders”.
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From our correspondent in Moscow,
Russia announced these exercises exactly on May 6, the day before Vladimir Putin’s inauguration, and three days before the traditional military parade on May 9.
At the time, the Pentagon mentioned “ an example of the type of irresponsible rhetoric we have seen from Russia in the past “. Moscow has therefore in any case moved from words to deeds, and this with a great deal of images.
Since the end of the day on Tuesday, the Telegram channel of the Ministry of Defense has been broadcasting images of trucks equipped with heavy equipment, and in particular two Iskander systems deployed in a field and soldiers working on an airfield around a bomber.
Russian military correspondents followed suit. They speculate extensively with long messages on their Telegram channels, on an arsenal always presented as necessarily the most powerful in the world.
Another message that is intended to be threatening: the location of the exercise. Or somewhere in the “Southern military zone”. Its headquarters is in Rostov, Russian military headquarters for the war launched by Vladimir Putin. It covers in particular the annexed territories of Ukraine.
The tactical nuclear weapon, smaller in explosive charge than the strategic nuclear weapon, is theoretically intended to destroy targets on the battlefield and can be fired from vehicles, artillery pieces, ships or planes.
Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, the president has blown hot and cold about a possible use of nuclear weapons.
Russia deployed tactical nuclear weapons in the summer of 2023 in Belarus, its closest ally, which also announced in May a synchronized exercise with Moscow to check its tactical nuclear weapons launchers.
Russian nuclear doctrine provides for recourse “ strictly defensive “with 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 the state “.
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