Russia said on Monday it would hold military exercises with troops based near Ukraine to practice the possible use of nuclear weapons on the battlefield, raising tensions with the West after two European leaders raised the possibility of more direct Western intervention in the war.
These weapons, often called “tactical,” are designed for use on the battlefield and have smaller warheads than “strategic” nuclear weapons intended to attack cities. Russia’s Defense Ministry said President Vladimir V. Putin had ordered an exercise for naval, aviation and missile personnel to “increase the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to carry out combat missions.”
Russian officials claimed the order was in response to Western comments about the possibility of more direct Western involvement in the war in Ukraine. And it came at the start of a week of widespread publicity for the Russian leader, with his inauguration scheduled for Tuesday, followed on Thursday by the annual Victory Day celebration, which commemorates the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. .
The exercise announcement was Russia’s most explicit warning in its more than two-year invasion of Ukraine that it could use tactical nuclear weapons there.
Western officials have long worried that Russia could deploy such weapons, especially if it faces serious setbacks on the battlefield. But Putin denied in March that he ever considered it, even as he regularly reminds the world of Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal as a way to keep Western military support for Ukraine in check.
The Defense Ministry said the exercise would be carried out “to unconditionally guarantee the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian State in response to provocative statements and threats by individual Western officials against the Russian Federation.”
The exercise, the Defense Ministry said, would involve forces from the Southern Military District, an area covering Russian-occupied Ukraine and part of Russia’s border region with Ukraine. He said the exercise would take place “in the near future.”
Dmitri S. Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said the Western “threats” in question included a recent interview with President Emmanuel Macron of France published by The Economist, in which the French leader repeated his refusal to rule out sending ground troops. to Ukraine.
Peskov also alluded to a comment made last week by David Cameron, Britain’s top diplomat, in which he said Ukraine was free to use British weapons to attack inside Russia, a departure from the typical policy of Western governments to discourage such attacks to avoid being dragged deeper into the war.
“This is a completely new round of escalation of tensions; it is unprecedented,” Peskov told reporters on Monday. “And, of course, it requires special attention and measures.”
Pavel Podvig, a scholar of Russian nuclear forces, said in an interview that Russia had conducted such exercises before, although it rarely made them public. This time, however, the goal is to send a strong message, he said.
“This is a reaction to specific statements, a sign that Russia has nuclear weapons,” Podvig said in a telephone interview.
Unlike strategic nuclear weapons, which are always in a state of combat readiness, nonstrategic ones are stored in warehouses far from the bombers, missiles or ships that are supposed to transport them, Podvig said. During the exercise, Russian army formations will likely practice how they might deploy, he said. But it would make little sense to use them in the context of the war in Ukraine, Podvig added.
“This weapons system exists to send a signal,” he said.
Putin has not made any public comments about the drills. On Tuesday he is scheduled to take office for his fifth term as president.
Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting from Batumi, Georgia.