Russian troops began large-scale drills to ensure troop readiness for the potential deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield, as Moscow warned against an invading threat from Western allies.
The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday published a video of troops practicing attaching missiles and warheads to fighter jets in the backs of armored trucks equipped with missile firing systems.
The Ministry said in a Telegram post that Russian troops launched the first phase of “practical tests” of tactical nuclear weapons in the southern military district, which includes Russia’s southwestern regions, including those bordering Ukraine.
Troops are training in missile formations to load vehicles with Iskander ballistic missiles and then drive them to designated areas in a simulated test. Aviation personnel practiced equipping Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and special warheads on fighter jets and transporting them to designated zones.
“The ongoing exercise is aimed at maintaining the readiness of personnel and equipment of units for the combat use of non-strategic nuclear weapons to respond and unconditionally guarantee the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state in response to provocative statements and threats by individual Western officials against the Russian Federation,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said in the Telegram statement.
The exercises are expected to exacerbate tensions with the US and renew fears that Russia is prepared to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Tactical nuclear weapons typically have a lower yield than larger strategic nuclear weapons, but can still carry up to 100 kilotons of yield, far greater than that of the American bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly threatened the West with nuclear weapons amid the war in Ukraine and last year began transferring tactical nuclear weapons to ally Belarus, bringing them closer to NATO territory.
Earlier this year, Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons if Western allies came to Ukraine’s aid.
The exercises help troops prepare for the potential future deployment of nuclear weapons, but do not actually involve testing nuclear bombs. These are prohibited by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, although Russia last year rescinded its signature on that agreement for the first time.
The US has never ratified the treaty, but it has not tested a nuclear bomb since the early 1990s. The last known nuclear bomb test was carried out by North Korea in 2017.
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