Russia warns that it will view any attempt to transfer US nuclear weapons to Britain as an escalation and threatens to respond with a series of “countermeasures” to ensure its own security. This was announced by State Department spokeswoman Mara Zajárova on Tuesday, referring at a press conference to a report released last week on the US Air Force budget for 2024. A document that includes an item for the construction of a 144-bed dormitory at the British military base at Lakenheath in the county of Suffolk, which is owned by the Royal Air Force (RAF for short).
The US Army told Congress that the building would be used to “accommodate the increase in personnel resulting from the potential security mission,” jargon experts say the Pentagon commonly uses when dealing with nuclear weapons. Construction of the dormitory is scheduled to begin in June 2024 and last until February 2026.
It is the latest sign that Washington and London are making a series of preparations for the possible return of American nuclear weapons to British soil for the first time in more than 15 years. Because of this, Zajárova warned: “If this step is ever taken, we will consider it an escalation, a step toward an escalation that would take things in the completely opposite direction than the pressing issue of withdrawing all nuclear weapons from countries to tackle Europeans.” “.
“In the context of the transition of the US and NATO to an openly confrontational course of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia, this practice and its development compel us to adopt compensatory countermeasures aimed at reliably protecting Russia’s security interests.” Our country and its allies,” added the spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) estimates that the United States has one hundred B61 gravity bombs stationed in Europe and another 100 B61s, the only tactical weapon in its arsenal, stored in the United States. If sent to Lakenheath Base, it would almost certainly be a modernized version of the B61, analysts say.
“While the possible return of American nuclear weapons to British soil certainly deserves more scrutiny, it’s a little encouraging that it comes from a government that began doing exactly the same thing with Belarus last year,” said the information project’s lead researcher. SAF nuclear supervisor Matt Korda, who discovered the US budget allocation for a safe residential home in Lakenheath, In this sense, Korda thinks it is “highly unlikely that the Russian government would describe its own joint nuclear deals with Belarus as escalating or destabilizing, and yet the parallels between the two situations are clearly visible.”
According to agency estimates, Russia has 1,816 tactical or non-strategic weapons. That means they have a shorter range and are therefore intended for use in combat rather than destroying entire cities. The weapons have been stored to this day, but Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision, released in June, to transfer them to Belarusian territory scuppered the plans. Although Western intelligence services have not yet discovered its use in Belarus,
The warheads are intended for use on Belarusian Iskander missile launchers or as bombs for dropping Belarusian Su-24 or Su-25 aircraft. If the transfer goes ahead, it would be the first time Moscow has put nuclear weapons in the hands of its allies since the fall of the Soviet Union.
