Russia's land-based, air, and submarine nuclear forces are on standby, Defense Minister tells Putin.
Putin ordered nuclear forces to go on alert after accusing "senior NATO officials" of "making aggressive statements about our country."
Sputnik - Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country's nuclear deterrent forces to be placed on high alert. on Sunday (27), following "aggressive statements" from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) related to the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.
>>> "Is Putin going to press the nuclear button?", asks the BBC correspondent in Moscow.
On Monday (28), the UK Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, warned that if Russia was not "stopped" "in Ukraine", the situation could turn into a conflict with NATO.
Russia's land-based, air-based, and submarine nuclear deterrent forces have begun a state of heightened alert with personnel, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed President Putin.
"Russian Defense Minister General Sergei Shoigu informed the Supreme Commander of the Russian Armed Forces, Vladimir Putin, that, according to his order, the shift teams at the command posts of the Strategic Missile Force, the Northern and Pacific Fleets, and the Long-Range Aviation Command have begun to carry out combat duty with reinforced personnel," the ministry said in a statement on Monday (28).
Putin asked Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, to put the strategic deterrent of the Russian Armed Forces into "special combat service mode" on Sunday (27). The president ordered the heightened alert status to be implemented after accusing "senior officials from key NATO nations" of allowing themselves to "make aggressive statements about our country".
Putin did not specify who these "senior officials" were, but just hours before his announcement, the UK Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, stated that unless Russia's ongoing special military operation in Ukraine to demilitarize the country was "halted," the situation could "end in conflict with NATO."
Truss has been heavily criticized in her home country for her gaffe-prone comments on the Russia-NATO crisis over Ukraine, accidentally refusing to acknowledge Moscow's sovereignty over the internationally recognized Russian regions of Rostov and Voronezh during recent talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and promising to support "our Baltic allies across the Black Sea," in a reference to two different maritime regions separated by more than 1.200 km of territory.
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