The Russian drill was planned, announced and is taking place in the same month as similar NATO drills, but comes at a time of heightened tension over a “dirty bomb” claim Russia has made against Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin watched from afar the annual exercise, dubbed “Grom” or “Thunder,” which uses test launches to put Moscow’s nuclear forces through their paces in a show of force designed to prevent and intimidate enemies. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin that the drills were intended to simulate a “massive nuclear strike” by Russia in retaliation for a nuclear attack on Russia.
Potential challenge to US, allies
The Kremlin said in a statement that all tasks set for the exercise were fulfilled and all missiles fired reached their designated targets. The Pentagon said a day earlier that Russia had notified it of its intention to hold the drills at a time when NATO is rehearsing its own use of US nuclear bombs based in Europe in the annual “Steadfast Noon” war games. The drills pose a potential challenge for the United States and its allies after Putin rattled off nuclear weapons during his invasion of Ukraine, although Western officials have expressed confidence in their ability to tell the difference between a Russian exercise and of any move by Putin to make it good. to his threats. Russian President Vladimir Putin, pictured Wednesday in the Kremlin, has doubled down on Ukraine after suffering heavy losses on the battlefield. (Alexei Babushkin/Sputnik/Kremlin) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is holding its own annual nuclear drills this month, involving US B-52 bombers, 14 countries and up to 60 aircraft. The Russian exercise comes amid warnings by Moscow of an alleged Ukrainian plot to detonate a radioactive device in a false flag attack to blame Russia, a claim strongly denied by Ukraine and its allies. Russia continued to beat that drum this week, including comments from Shoigu and Putin and a message delivered behind closed doors to the United Nations Security Council.
Putin warns of ‘so-called dirty bomb’
Shoigu called his Indian and Chinese counterparts to convey Moscow’s concern about the alleged Ukrainian plan, following a series of phone calls earlier in the week with NATO defense ministers. Putin spoke of the alleged threat on Wednesday, telling a meeting of intelligence officials from the group of former Soviet CIS countries that the West was “pumping” Ukraine with heavy weapons, adding: “There are also plans to use a so-called dirty bomb to challenges”. It was the first time Putin himself made the dirty bomb claim. A dirty bomb uses explosives to spread radioactive waste in an attempt to spread terror. Such weapons lack the devastating destruction of a nuclear explosion, but could expose wide areas to radioactive contamination that could last for years. Western allies have dismissed as absurd the idea that Ukraine would contaminate its land with toxic waste when Russia is on the back foot on the battlefield. Russia has not provided any evidence for the claim. Britain’s deputy ambassador to the UN, James Kariuki, called the claims “pure Russian disinformation of the kind we have seen many times before”. Western officials have expressed fear that the warning appears to serve as justification for some kind of Russian escalation on the battlefield as Ukrainian forces advance into Russian-held Kherson province. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday that the 30-nation military organization “will not be intimidated or deterred from supporting Ukraine’s right to self-defense for as long as necessary.” WATCHES | Ukraine denies Russia’s ‘dirty bomb’ accusation:
Ukraine denies Russia’s ‘dirty bomb’ accusation.
Ukraine denies claims by Russia that it is about to launch a radioactive “dirty bomb” attack, a claim that Western allies have also rejected. United Nations inspectors will head to the country at Kiev’s request to debunk the accusation. Since Russian forces suffered major defeats in Ukraine in September, Putin has doubled down, calling up hundreds of thousands of reservists, announcing the annexation of occupied territories and engaging in threats. US President Joe Biden warned Moscow on Tuesday that any use of nuclear weapons by Russia would be an “incredibly serious mistake”. Slovenia’s government said Russia has engaged in a disinformation campaign about “dirty bombs,” using a 2010 photo from the European Union country’s Radioactive Waste Agency titled “Ukraine’s capabilities to build the dirty bomb.” The photo shows bags containing smoke detectors bearing signs in Slovenian that read “radioaktivno”, or radioactive. The Slovenian government says the detectors contain a radioactive source, but it is not one of those listed under the photo in the Russian Foreign Ministry statement. Slovenia’s government said on Twitter that its radioactive waste is being stored safely and is not being used for dirty bombs.
Russia hits more than 40 cities
On the ground, Ukrainian officials say Russia has targeted more than 40 towns around Ukraine in the past day, killing at least two more people and perpetuating the terror that forces people into air raid shelters every night. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced on Wednesday that Russian forces had launched five rockets, 30 airstrikes and more than 100 multiple-launch missile attacks on Ukrainian targets. A Ukrainian official said Wednesday that a Russian strike hit a gas station in the city of Dnipro, killing two people, including a pregnant woman. The governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Reznichenko, said four injured people were taken to hospital. Russian forces are digging in for the “heaviest fighting” in the strategic southern region of Kherson, a senior Ukrainian official said, as the Kremlin prepares to defend the largest city under its control in Ukraine. Authorities installed by Russia in the city of Kherson are encouraging residents to flee to the east bank, but Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said there were no signs that Russian forces themselves were preparing to leave the city. Mykolaiv, a southern port near the front lines of the war, is among places where residents have lined up to receive rations of bread and canned food, as food price hikes and income losses add to the burdens of low-income households during the war. in Ukraine.
“It’s scary”
Several buildings and neighborhoods were hit in Mykolaiv on Tuesday, although it was not yet clear if there were any casualties, according to local authorities. The rockets continued early Wednesday morning. The only food distribution point in Mykolaiv allows each person to receive free bread once every three days. Many have to walk long distances to collect the necessary food for their family. “Bread and canned food is all I eat. It’s already almost winter and it’s scary,” said Anna Bilusova, 70. A woman mourns at the grave of her only son, a soldier killed during a Russian bombing raid, at a cemetery in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday. She did not learn of her son’s death until four months later, when she managed to escape from her village in Kherson that was occupied by Russian troops. (Emilio Morenatti/The Associated Press) Meanwhile, the Kremlin on Wednesday kept the door open to talks about a possible exchange for jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner, but reiterated that any such discussions must be kept strictly confidential. A Russian court on Tuesday rejected Griner’s appeal against a nine-year prison sentence for drug possession. The eight-time All-Star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and two-time Olympic gold medalist was sentenced Aug. 4 after police said they found vapor cans containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
