Russian President Vladimir Putin is monitoring from afar a ballistic missile testin response to the maneuvers of a possible “nuclear bombardment of the enemy”, in which the Kremlin tested its ability to launch a large-scale retaliatory nuclear attack by land, sea and air, simultaneously with deratification of a historic nuclear test ban treaty.
“Under the leadership of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces Vladimir Putin, the training of land, sea and air forces combined with nuclear deterrence forces is being conducted,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
According to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, these exercises consist of simulating “the launch of a large-scale nuclear attack by strategic offensive forces in response to a nuclear attack by the enemy.” During these exercises, An IARS intercontinental ballistic missile was fired from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia. and another Sineva ballistic missile from a submarine in the Barents Sea, the Kremlin detailed.
According to the same source, the long-range Tu-95MS aircraft also fired cruise missiles. Russian public television broadcast a short excerpt showing Putin listening to a report by Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valéri Gerassimov after the maneuvers.
The Russian Armed Forces will practice launching a "massive nuclear strike in response to an enemy nuclear strike" – Shoigu
Russia's strategic deterrence forces are undergoing training under Putin's leadership. Russian Defense Minister Shoigu reported to Putin that the Russian… pic.twitter.com/MbomL5NkTU
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 25, 2023
Putin said in early October that he could say whether his country would continue with nuclear testing or not. However, he announced that Moscow may withdraw the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, Putin has discussed the possible use of nuclear weapons on several occasions. Russia is sending tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, the EU’s closest ally and neighbor, in the summer of 2023.
With tensions at their highest level since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, Russia – which has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal – is moving swiftly to undermine its ratification. Moscow conducts such exercises from time to time to test its so-called nuclear triad. The United States also periodically conducts nuclear exercises.
Russia will simply resume such tests – a move Western military experts believe it could be tempted to take to signal intentions and evoke fear in any confrontation with the West—if the United States is the first to do so, Moscow said. The only reason Russia says it has repeatedly withdrawn from the CTBT is to align itself with Washington, which has signed but never ratified the same document.
https://twitter.com/monitorwarr/status/1717230329079972122?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Russia’s Congress ‘revoked’ ratification of nuclear deal
These exercises were made public on the same day that the Upper House of the Russian Parliament approved the withdrawal of the ratification of the CTBT, amid the conflict in Ukraine and the crisis in the West. In the Federation Council, the senators unanimously adopted with 156 votes in favor of the law that now goes to the office of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin for promulgation.
Putin called the withdrawal of the treaty in response to the fact that the United States signed the agreement with Moscow, but never ratified the text in Washington. Putin did not specify if your country plans to continue nuclear testing. Duma deputies approved the law last week and the president of the Lower House, Viacheslav Volodin, defended the initiative as “a response to the disgusting behavior of the United States towards its obligations to maintain global security .”
