Russia's General Staff preparing for drills to practice use of non-strategic Nuclear Weapons

Photo: Sputnik

The training exercises for Russian Southern Military District missile units will be held in response to "provocative threats by Western nations against Russia," Moscow underscored.

The General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces is preparing for drills to practice the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons.

The forthcoming exercises involving missile units of the Southern Military District will feature aviation as well as naval forces, and are to be held on instructions from Supreme Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday, Sputnik informs.

The drills are aimed at increasing "the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to carry out combat missions," the ministry said in a statement.

"The exercise aims at maintaining the readiness of personnel and equipment of units for the combat use of non-strategic nuclear weapons to respond and in order to unconditionally ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Russia in response to provocative statements and threats of individual Western officials against Russia," the ministry statement added.

The West has been escalating the bellicose theme of a Russian “strategic defeat" in Ukraine, while also concocting accusations of hybrid attacks by Moscow on the alliance as part of the overall anti-Russian hysteria.

NATO's large-scale Steadfast Defender drills are a clear indication that the alliance is preparing for a "potential conflict" with Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.

"Right now, NATO is conducting its largest drills since the Cold War, Steadfast Defender, near the Russian border. According to the scenario, using all tools, including hybrid ones and conventional weapons, they are exercising coalition actions against Russia. We have to admit that NATO states are seriously preparing for a ‘potential conflict’ with us, about which, by the way, high-ranking NATO representatives are openly talking," Zakharova said in a statement published by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Furthermore, the North Atlantic Council adopted a statement on May 2 accusing Russia of hybrid attacks against the alliance's member states. In response, Zakharova said the bloc and "the leadership of some individual member states are doing what they are best at – spreading disinformation, increasing the degree of anti-Russian hysteria in order to justify unprecedented levels of militarization in Europe."

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