Nato on Sunday criticised Vladimir Putin for what it referred to as his “harmful and irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric, a day after the Russian president mentioned he would station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Putin introduced the transfer on Saturday and likened it to the US stationing its weapons in Europe, whereas insisting that Russia wouldn’t violate its nuclear non-proliferation guarantees.
Though the transfer was not sudden, it’s certainly one of Russia’s most pronounced nuclear indicators because the starting of its invasion of Ukraine 13 months in the past, and Ukraine referred to as for a gathering of the UN Safety Council in response.
Whereas Washington, the world’s different nuclear superpower, performed down issues about Putin’s announcement, Nato mentioned the Russian president’s non-proliferation pledge and his description of US weapons deployment abroad have been approach off the mark.
“Russia’s reference to Nato’s nuclear sharing is completely deceptive. Nato allies act with full respect of their worldwide commitments,” a Nato spokesperson mentioned in emailed feedback to Reuters on Sunday.
“Russia has constantly damaged its arms management commitments, most not too long ago suspending its participation within the New START Treaty,” the unnamed spokesperson mentioned.
New START caps the variety of strategic nuclear warheads that america and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land and submarine-based missiles and bombers to ship them.
A high safety adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Oleksiy Danilov, mentioned Russia’s plan would additionally destabilise Belarus, which he mentioned had been taken “hostage” by Moscow.
Specialists mentioned Russia’s transfer was vital because it had till now been proud that in contrast to america, it didn’t deploy nuclear weapons outdoors its borders. It could be the primary time because the mid-Nineteen Nineties that it has performed so.
One other senior Zelenskiy adviser on Sunday scoffed at Putin’s plan, saying the Russian chief is “too predictable”.
“Making a press release about tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, he admits that he’s afraid of shedding and all he can do is scare with ways,” Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
Washington appeared to see no change within the potential for Moscow to make use of nuclear weapons within the warfare in Ukraine, and it and Nato mentioned the information wouldn’t have an effect on their very own nuclear place.
“Now we have not seen any modifications in Russia’s nuclear posture that may lead us to regulate our personal,” the Nato spokesperson wrote.
Tactical nuclear weapons seek advice from these used for particular positive factors on a battlefield relatively than these with the capability to wipe out cities. It’s unclear what number of such weapons Russia has, given it’s an space nonetheless shrouded in Chilly Conflict secrecy.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry called for an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) after Putin’s announcement, and it asked the international community to “take decisive measures” to prevent Russia’s use of nuclear weapons.
“Russia once again confirms its chronic inability to be a responsible steward of nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence and prevention of war, not as a tool of threats and intimidation.”
Analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said the risk of escalation to nuclear war “remains extremely low”.
In Washington, Rep Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the US House of Representatives foreign affairs committee, said he regarded Russia’s plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus as disturbing and designed to intimidate the West.
“Tensions are rising. I think this is saber-rattling on the part of Putin basically to try to frighten,” McCaul told the Fox News Sunday programme.
“These tactical nukes are disturbing.”
But the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons called Putin’s announcement an extremely dangerous escalation.
“In the context of the war in Ukraine, the likelihood of miscalculation or misinterpretation is extremely high. Sharing nuclear weapons makes the situation much worse and risks catastrophic humanitarian consequences,” it said on Twitter.
Putin said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had long requested the deployment. There was no immediate reaction from Lukashenko.
While the Belarusian army has not formally fought in Ukraine, Minsk and Moscow have close military ties. Minsk allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to send troops into Ukraine last year.
Putin on Sunday also denied Moscow was creating a military alliance with Beijing and instead asserted that Western powers are building a new “axis” similar to the partnership between Germany and Japan during World War Two.
This was a reprisal of a theme he has often used in his portrayal of the Ukraine war — that Moscow is fighting a Ukraine in the grip of supposed Nazis, abetted by Western powers menacing Russia.
Ukraine — which was part of the Soviet Union and itself suffered devastation at the hands of Hitler’s forces — rejects those parallels as spurious pretexts for a war of conquest.
On the battlefield, Russian forces hit military targets in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, causing significant Ukrainian casualties, Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday.
Russia’s TASS news agency quoted a law enforcement source as saying a Ukrainian drone packed with explosives hit the centre of the Russian town of Kireyevsk in the Tula region on Sunday, injuring two people.
Russia has said in the past that Ukrainian drones have flown into its territory and caused damage to civilian infrastructure, an assertion that Kyiv denies.
Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Russian forces had destroyed two apartment buildings in a missile strike on the eastern city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region. He said there were no casualties.
Ukraine’s General Staff said on Sunday Ukrainian forces had repelled 85 Russian attacks over the past 24 hours across the eastern front, including the Bakhmut area, the scene of brutal fighting in the last few months.
Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.
