LONDON (Reuters) – Russia said on Tuesday that four Ukrainian regions, whose annexation it proclaimed last month, are under the protection of its nuclear arsenal.
The Kremlin’s statement came at a time of heightened tension, with both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russia expected to soon hold military exercises to test the readiness of their nuclear weapons forces.
Asked by reporters whether the regions were under Moscow’s nuclear umbrella, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “All these territories are inalienable parts of the Russian Federation and they are all protected. Its security is provided on the same level as the rest of Russia’s territory.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that Moscow was ready to use nuclear weapons if necessary to defend its “territorial integrity”. US President Joe Biden said on October 6 that what he called a threat made by Putin brought the world closer to “Armageddon” than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many feared that a nuclear war could be imminent.
Nearly eight months after the invasion of Ukraine, some analysts believe that Putin’s likelihood of resorting to nuclear weapons has increased since his army suffered a series of major defeats. Putin’s ally Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, warned the West last week against cornering Russia.
Other analysts have argued that the nuclear risk is exaggerated, suggesting that it would be suicidal for Putin to embark on such an escalation.
NATO is conducting nuclear preparedness exercises this week and said it expected Russia to conduct its own nuclear exercises soon, but Peskov said he had no information on that.
“There is an established system of notifications to inform about the conduct of exercises, and this is done through the channels of the Ministry of Defense,” he said.
Putin proclaimed last month that the territories Moscow was taking from Ukraine would be part of Russia “forever”. But Russia does not fully control any of the four regions and has yet to define its borders.
The annexation was condemned as illegal by Ukraine, its Western allies and an overwhelming majority of countries in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.
Russia has lost ground in the four regions since it claimed control over them in a Kremlin ceremony on Sept. 30. Peskov said work was still underway to integrate them into Russia’s legal, economic and security systems.
(Report by Reuters)
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