Russia has begun nuclear war games and moved Iskander-M missiles into Belarus onto the door step of the European Union. Ukraine has rushed troops to its northern border and Nato has condemned the threatening moves.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence issued a press release and video footage to ensure that the threat against Ukraine and its allies in its defence against the Kremlin’s invasion was clear.
Ria Novosti, a Kremlin-aligned news site, said that “Since May 18, Belarus has begun training in the combat use of nuclear weapons and their provision by military units.
“It involves the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern and Pacific Fleets, the Long-Range Aviation Command, as well as part of the forces of the Leningrad and Central Military Districts”.
It is unclear whether the nuclear capable missiles have been loaded with nuclear warheads themselves.
Asked what would happen if Russia were to carry out any kind of nuclear attack the secretary general of Nato, Mark Rutte, replied: “Well, (Russia) knows if that happens, the reaction is devastating”.
Previous nuclear threats from Russia of this kind during its war against Ukraine have been met with more personal warnings from allied intelligence services.
According to European sources, Russians generals and other senior officers likely to have been involved in any nuclear operations were contacted individually and told in “graphic and aggressive terms” how they “would not survive” any attempt to use nuclear weapons.
“Exercises for military units on the combat deployment of nuclear weapons and nuclear support have begun. The aim of the exercises is to improve the level of personnel training, verify the readiness of weapons, military and special equipment for task execution, and organise combat deployment from unplanned areas.”
“During the exercises, in coordination with the Russian side, it is planned to practise the delivery of nuclear munitions and their preparation for use,” Belarus’s Ministry of Defence said while insisting that the war games were not intended to threaten any other nation.
But Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky is unconvinced. Before the nuclear drills got underway he said that it was clear Russia was trying to draw Belarus deeper into its war against his country.
“We know that additional contacts have taken place between the Russians and Aleksandr Lukashenko aimed at persuading him to join new Russian aggressive operations.
“In particular, Russia is considering plans for operations to the south and north of Belarusian territory – either against the Chernihiv-Kyiv direction in Ukraine or against one of the NATO countries directly from the territory of Belarus,” he said last week.
Now Ukraine is reinforcing its northern border and has deployed forces to protect its most northern flank from infiltrators coming into the country on the route first used by Russia during its failed assault on the Kapital, Kyiv, in 2022.
Under increasing pressure from Ukraine on the battlefields of the east of the country where Russian forces are being driven back or bogged down losing around 35,000 men a month, the Kremlin has resorted to nuclear threats.
It did so when its forces dramatically retreated from land captured early on in 2022 after the full scale invasion on Ukraine.
“The personnel of the missile unit of the Republic of Belarus are performing training-combat tasks for receiving special warheads for the Iskander-M operational-tactical missile complex, equipping the carrier missiles, and covertly advancing to the designated area to prepare for launches,’ the Russian defence ministry said.
Belarus’ ministry of defence added: “Once there, the missile unit carried out simulated missile launches at designated targets”.
Those targets are likely to include Kyiv but Belarus also shares borders with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland – all EU countries and all part of Nato.
Iskander-M missiles could reach targets in all of these nations and Poland is the most vulnerable if the missiles are deployed to the south of Belarus.
The Russian Defence Ministry claimed that the exercises centred around Belarus involved a massive number of troops – 64,000 personnel, training on over 7,800 pieces of military equipment and weapons, including more than 200 missile launch systems, over 140 aircraft, 73 surface vessels and 13 submarines, 8 of which are strategic missile submarines.