President Putin observed Russian nuclear drills today that simulated a “massive” strike against the Kremlin’s enemies amid spiralling tensions over the war in Ukraine.
The drills, which were carried out in Russia’s remote Kamchatka region, involved Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and Tupolev strategic bomber planes, said Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s leading general.
The Kremlin said all the missiles had hit their targets. Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister, told Putin that the Grom [Thunder] drills simulated “a massive nuclear strike by strategic offensive forces in response to an enemy nuclear strike”.
The drills came shortly after Shoigu warned that the eight-month war in Ukraine was heading towards an “uncontrolled escalation”. The United States said, however, that Russia had notified it in advance about the annual exercises.
The Kremlin accused Kyiv this week of planning to use a “dirty bomb” — a bomb laced with radioactive material — in Ukraine. Russia has not produced proof to back up its claim and Nato has called the accusation “absurd”. Some analysts say the allegation could be aimed at preparing the ground for a Russian “false-flag” attack.
Putin has threatened to use Russia’s nuclear arsenal, the world’s largest, to prevent Kyiv from recapturing territory in four regions of Ukraine that the Kremlin now claims as its own. State television pundits have also urged Putin to launch nuclear attacks on western countries, including Britain.
Despite the rhetoric, Washington has seen no intelligence to indicate that Putin has made any decision to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, American officials say. Oleksiy Reznikov, the Ukrainian defence minister, said today that he did not believe that Russia would use nuclear weapons.
Alexander Dugin, the nationalist philosopher whose daughter, Darya, was killed in a car bombing in August, told Russia’s religious and political elite yesterday that the war in Ukraine was a holy war between Russia and demonic western forces that would lead to the end of the world.
“This is why we are talking more often about Armageddon, the end of times, and the Apocalypse,” Dugin, whose books are said to have influenced Kremlin policymakers, told a meeting of the World Russian People’s Council in Moscow. “This is all unfolding in front of our eyes.”
President Biden has told Russia that it would be making an “incredible, serious mistake” if it deployed a nuclear bomb in Ukraine.
Speaking at the White House yesterday, Biden, 79, was asked whether Moscow was planning a false-flag operation in Ukraine.
“Let me just say: Russia would be making an incredible, serious mistake if it were to use a tactical nuclear weapon,” Biden said. “I’m not guaranteeing that it’s a false-flag operation yet. Don’t know, but it would be a serious mistake, a very serious mistake.”
Russia took its case to the UN yesterday, presenting to a closed session of the security council its evidence of what it said were Ukraine’s plans.
“We’re quite satisfied because we raised the awareness,” Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, told reporters. “I don’t mind people saying that Russia is crying wolf if this doesn’t happen because this is a terrible, terrible disaster that threatens potentially the whole of the Earth.”
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, repeated Russia’s allegations and said the West was foolish to dismiss them. At the weekend Shoigu made similar claims during a call with Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, and the defence ministers of other western countries, including the US. Britain, the US and France dismissed Moscow’s suggestions as “transparently false”.
James Kariuki, Britain’s deputy UN ambassador, said yesterday: “We’ve seen and heard no new evidence,” referring to Russia’s allegations. “This is pure Russian misinformation of the kind we’ve seen many times before and it should stop.”
