The Kremlin said that the annual nuclear exercise by NATO, the Western military alliance, involving nuclear-capable military aircraft, which began this Monday (14), fuels tensions in light of the “hot war” in Ukraine.
NATO has scheduled the start of its annual “Steadfast Noon” nuclear exercise for this Monday, the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, said on Thursday (19), something he classified as a powerful demonstration of nuclear weapons capabilities. deterrence against a backdrop of heightened nuclear rhetoric from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
F-35A fighters and B-52 bombers will be among about 60 aircraft from 13 countries taking part in the exercise, hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands, NATO officials said.
“In the conditions of a hot war, which is taking place within the framework of the Ukrainian conflict, such exercises lead to nothing but a further escalation of tension,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned reporters.
Peskov pointed out that it is also impossible to hold negotiations on nuclear weapons with the USA, something that the American government signaled was open, because Western nuclear powers were involved in the conflict against Russia.
Any negotiations on security would therefore need to be much broader in scope.
US President Joe Biden said the country is ready to negotiate with Russia, China and North Korea without preconditions to reduce the nuclear threat.
Biden’s comment came after the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, a movement of Japanese survivors of the US atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, on Friday (11).
“In the context of the war being waged against Russia with the indirect and even direct involvement of nuclear powers such as the United States, the United Kingdom and France, it is absolutely impossible to talk about this without linking the issue to all other aspects of security” , pondered Peskov.
“In fact, our president has already spoken about this. Russia considers such contacts necessary and they cannot be postponed, but we must consider all security issues as a whole, taking into account the current state of affairs,” he added.
Peskov rejected a statement by Bruno Kahl, head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, who said earlier on Monday that Russian forces would be in a position to attack NATO territory by the end of this decade at the latest.
“Russia has never moved its military infrastructure towards NATO, it has always been the other way around,” Peskov noted.
“To say, therefore, that it is the Russian armed forces that pose a danger to anyone is absolutely wrong, illogical and, most importantly, contradicts the entire course of history, which led to the confrontation that we are now all experiencing together,” he concluded.
This content was originally published in NATO nuclear exercises fuel tensions amid war, warns Kremlin on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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