On October 17, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization began military exercises on nuclear deterrence called “Steadfast Noon”. They will last until October 30.
The press service of NATO writes about it.
The training schedule includes practicing deterring enemy nuclear attacks by dozens of aircraft in the sky over northwestern Europe. At the same time, the Alliance emphasizes that these exercises are regular, annual and not related to current world events, hinting that they are not caused by Russian threats.
60 aircraft from 14 NATO countries will be involved in the aviation exercises, which will continue over the territories of Belgium, Great Britain and the waters of the North Sea. For this purpose, the U.S. Air Force will send a group of B-52H strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons to Europe.
- On September 21, Putin announced a partial mobilization in Russia, supported the holding of pseudo-referendums in the occupied territories of Ukraine and threatened nuclear weapons in case of an attack on the Russian Federation. In fact, he hinted at the possibility of nuclear strikes if the Armed Forces of Ukraine continued to liberate the occupied territories.
- Earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with the BBC that Russia had begun to prepare its society for a nuclear strike, but added that he did not believe in the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
- The Secretary General of NATO said that the forces of the Alliance plan to conduct nuclear deterrence exercises. NATO said that a Russian nuclear strike on Ukraine would almost certainly trigger a "physical response" from the Allies.
- The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said that in the event of a nuclear attack on Ukraine, Russia would receive a powerful military response from its allies up to the destruction of the Russian army.