Russia has notified the United States of “routine” nuclear exercises amid international fears it may use nuclear weapons in its war against Ukraine, the US Department of Intelligence said on Tuesday. State.
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In doing so, Russia has honored its commitments under defense agreements that require notifying the United States of any intercontinental ballistic missile or ballistic missile testing from a submarine, he said. specified from the same source.
“This is an annual routine exercise for the Russians,” department spokesman Ned Price told the press, stressing that “these notifications allow you not to be surprised and reduce the risk of a wrong interpretation”.
In rare exchanges, the defense ministers of the two countries spoke twice during the past week, he further specified.
US President Joe Biden warned on Tuesday that Russia’s use of a nuclear weapon would be an “enormously serious mistake”, as Moscow claims Ukraine is preparing a “dirty bomb”, a claim denied by Kyiv and Western countries.
Moscow raised the charges for the first time on Sunday in telephone conversations between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his American, French, British and Turkish counterparts, referring to “possible provocations by Ukraine with recourse to a “dirty bomb”.
The spokesman for American diplomacy reiterated on Tuesday that the United States did not have information showing that Russia was preparing to use a nuclear weapon.
But, he noted, “this worries us, because Russia has a habit of accusing others of what it is preparing itself”.