NATO maintains nuclear war training, defies Russia

Amid the worsening crisis with Russia, stemming from Moscow’s escalation of attacks against the Ukraine invaded in February, NATO (the US-led military alliance) has announced that it will maintain its annual nuclear warfare training.

In recent weeks, President Vladimir Putin and other members of his government have increased the use of nuclear rhetoric in the conflict with their neighbour, suggesting that attacks on areas the Kremlin announced it annexed in late September could pose a threat to the Russian state. —therefore its defense with atomic warheads is appropriate.

According to the Norwegian Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, if the exercise were cancelled, “we would be sending the wrong signal to Moscow”. It’s a change of course that accompanies Washington, the power that deals the cards to the other 29 members of the alliance forged in 1949 to dissuade the Soviet Union from invading Western Europe.

At the start of the war, the Joe Biden administration canceled a routine test of an intercontinental missile, the kind that would be used to try to obliterate Russia, or China, in an all-out war. Then he changed his mind and tried four at once.

Asked about the risk of a nuclear confrontation with Russia, Stoltenberg maintained a tone of possible defiance: “We are prepared for any threat.” He again condemned Putin’s atomic threats, which had been made since the beginning of the war without condemnation of Cold War 2.0 partner China, and Monday’s massive missile attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.

The NATO exercise is known by the name of Steadfast Noon (noon firmly), informally — by the alliance’s standard, which uses the English initials of the maneuvers, it suggests an Allied Supreme Command exercise in Europe (hence the “s”) with nuclear forces (hence the “n”, although this is not provided for in the manual).

In it, nuclear-capable fighters and bombers are deployed, with the support of tankers and surveillance planes, at European bases with B61 tactical bombs, of lesser power and similar to those that Moscow has in large quantities. There is one of these in Germany, Holland, Belgium and Turkey, and two in Italy.

Usually, the focus of the action is on Italian territory, due to the geographical position favorable to a virtual attack against Russia – Turkey, which seeks to be a more neutral actor despite being from NATO, avoids such maneuvers on its soil. There are about a hundred of these tactical artifacts in Europe, a fifth of what there were ten years ago.

This kind of rhetorical duel dates back to one of the most dangerous periods of the Cold War, when a sequence of NATO exercises was seen in the Kremlin as a harbinger of a preemptive nuclear strike. The year was 1983, and documents uncovered over the years show that the risk of accidental conflict was one of the highest in history.

Meanwhile, the G7, a group of the seven most developed economies among democracies, is meeting at Kiev’s request to discuss increasing shipments of more sophisticated weapons to deter the Russians.

The Kremlin was particularly critical of the discussion on anti-aircraft systems, saying the West only prolongs the conflict, and Chancellor Sergei Lavrov again said that the US is directly involved in the war.