Russian President Vladimir Putin has “begun the process” of readying nuclear weapons to use on the world, an Kremlin-backed expert has said.
Earlier today it was revealed that Putin had told defence minister Sergei Shoigu to prepare exercises in the near future "in order to increase the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to fulfil combat missions.
And Russian news outlets also confirmed that the drills included tactical nuclear weapons, as a ministry spokesperson said: "A set of measures will be taken to practice the preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons."
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This was later backed up by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev who had a rant on his Telegram channel and appeared to blame the UK – in part – for the escalation.
He said: “Sending your troops to the territory of… Ukraine will entail the direct entry of their countries into the war, to which we will have to respond. And, alas, not in the territory of…Ukraine. In this case, none of them will be able to hide either on Capitol Hill, or in the Elysee Palace, or in 10 Downing Street. A world catastrophe will come.”
And now, speaking to Kremlin-backed Russian news outlet Moskovskij Komsomolets, an expert has claimed that this shows a new “red line” for Putin.
Dmitry Popov said: “A kind word and a gun can achieve much more than just a kind word. “Therefore, the Russian Armed Forces have begun preparing for exercises on the use of tactical nuclear weapons. This is already a qualitative change in our policy from words to deeds.
“No matter how many red lines we draw - for the supply of tanks, for the supply of long-range missiles, for aircraft, for the NATO contingent – they all intersect or, in the case of personnel of Western armies, intersect before our eyes. Because in the game of escalation we always played number two, and we drew these red lines in the air.
“I would like to believe that this is not an episode, but a process that has begun.”
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