Subhechcha Ganguly In light of the rising tensions surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war as winter approaches, Moscow and NATO are preparing to undertake nuclear drills.
Up to 60 aircraft will participate in training flights over Belgium, the North Sea, and Britain as part of NATO’s annual nuclear exercise “Steadfast Noon,” which will begin on Monday. The exercise will simulate the use of American nuclear bombs stationed in Europe.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reportedly said in a statement that Russia conducted exercises involving an unspecified number of Yars mobile ground-based missile systems, with troops practising how to conceal them from aerial reconnaissance systems and safeguard them from on-the-ground saboteurs.
Since the Cuban Missile Crisis 60 years ago, US President Joe Biden has warned that there has never been a greater threat of nuclear “Armageddon” to the West and Russia. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has said that his nation will use “all the tools available to us” to defend its citizens and territory. Washington and its NATO allies have taken this pledge as a threat to use nuclear weapons.
Russia did not conduct the drills in 2021 as a result of the COVID pandemic, but the Grom strategic exercises were conducted in February of this year, soon before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
The exercises take place as Russia has increased its missile attacks on Ukrainian territories, including the capital Kyiv, over the past week. Putin also took action to seize territory in Ukraine, which alarmed the international community.
The appropriate time has come to be forceful and clear that NATO is there to defend and safeguard all of its friends, said Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of NATO and a former politician from Norway, to reporters on Tuesday.
