The Russian Ministry of Defense reports that the General Staff, on the instructions of the country’s President Vladimir Putin, has started preparing for exercises of the missile formations of the Southern Military District (SMD) and the Naval Forces in the near future, the BBC reports.
It is planned to develop “Issues of the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons”.
The exercises are being prepared in response to “provocative statements and threats by Western officials” and will be held “soon.” The report does not specify exactly what the “provocative statements” are, nor has the location of the training been announced.
Only on Monday, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, clarified that it is about the statements of the French president, representatives of Great Britain and representatives of the US Senate about the alleged “intentions to send armed forces to Ukraine”.
“This is a completely new round of escalation of tensions that requires special attention and special measures,” the Kremlin spokesman said.
Reacting to Peskov’s statement on Monday, the US condemned Moscow’s “irresponsible rhetoric”.
“This is an example of the same irresponsible rhetoric we’ve heard from Russia in the past,” Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder told reporters.
“Given the current security situation, this is completely inappropriate,” the general added.
At the same time, Ryder explained that the American intelligence services have not observed “any changes in the positions of the Russian strategic forces”.
Tags: Kremlin escalation
