On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the cold war revives, with the threat of nuclear weapons, a global danger to humanity, to make its appearance again.

The president Vladimir Putin declared that Russia “will continue to focus on strengthening its nuclear forces” in a speech a day before the first anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine. Putin’s comments follow his decision to suspend the bilateral New Start nuclear arms control treaty with the United States.

Putin’s ‘nuclear triad’ references

“As before, we will pay increased attention to reinforcement of the nuclear triad” Putin said characteristically. The so-called “triad” is the ability of countries with nuclear weapons to launch a nuclear attack from land, sea or air.

That is, the silos of nuclear-tipped intercontinental and tactical ballistic missiles, strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear-tipped missiles, and Russian submarines carrying nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.

For the United States, having the three options was essentially about defense and response in the event of a strike, i.e. provoking retaliation.

If two of the three legs of the triad were destroyed, the third could retaliate.

It also gives flexibility to a military (super)power to use different types of weapons for the appropriate strike, while also maintaining a stock nuclear safe protected from an opponent’s strike.

Added to Putin’s rhetoric were threats from the vice chairman of the Russian Security Council, former president and prime minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev. Medvedev repeated threats to use nuclear weapons, bringing up the relevant article of the Russian constitution, according to which Moscow can even use nuclear weapons if it deems its territorial integrity threatened.

However, Moscow tested an intercontinental ballistic missile on Monday while President Joe Biden was in Ukraine, which appeared to have failed, according to CNN.

US officials told the US network on Tuesday that Russia notified the US in advance of the missile test. According to the officials, the US did not view the test as an escalation. This is a Russian intercontinental SARMAT ballistic missilenamed Satan II by NATO, and described as a “supership” by the head of Russia’s aerospace research service.

At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi did not discuss the alleged Chinese plan to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, Moscow said.

China is playing its own “(geo)strategic game” in the Washington-Moscow conflict, a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, CNN points out in its analysis.

Biden: “Big mistake” Russia’s withdrawal from New Start

US President Joe Biden before leaving Poland met with leaders of NATO’s eastern side. He praised the leaders of the “Bucharest Nine” saying that the US commitment to NATO is “sacred”.

“We will defend every centimeter of NATO,” he asserted and added that what is at stake is not only Ukraine, but democracy and it’s freedom.

“You are the front line of our collective defense and you know better than anyone what is at stake in this conflict. Not just for Ukraine but for the freedom of democracies across Europe and around the world,” Biden said.

“Article 5 is a sacred commitment that the United States has made. We will defend literally every centimeter of NATO, every centimeter of NATO,” he added.

The US president described Russia’s decision to withdraw from the New Start treaty as a “big mistake” as he entered the presidential palace in Warsaw, but clarified that there was “no evidence” that Moscow was actually considering the possibility. to use atomic weapons.

“Kiev is strong,” Biden said, adding that the world was responding to a “test for the ages” amid heightened tensions between the US and Russia.

“Immediate Threat”

In their declaration after the summit, the “Bucharest Nine” said they were committed to increasing NATO’s military presence on their soil as a deterrent against Moscow. “Russia is the most important and the most immediate threat to the security” of allies, they noted. They also expressed their support for Ukraine. “Ukraine is exercising its legitimate right to self-defense against Russian aggression to regain full control of its territory. We will continue to support Ukraine’s efforts to this end, as long as necessary,” the text reads.

The declaration was also signed by Hungary, which often appears to disagree with the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia and, along with Turkey, are the only NATO members that have not yet approved the accession requests of Sweden and Finland. Ahead of today’s meeting, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó called for a ceasefire and peace talks to avoid further escalation and generalization of the conflict – a stance however at odds with calls from neighboring countries for a clear victory of Ukraine in the war.

After the summit, Polish President Andrzej Duda told private television channel TVN24 that NATO allies would have to decide whether to send fighter jets to Ukraine, and if such a decision was made, his country could supply Kiev initially with the MiG planes it still has in its fleet.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Naušeda said that during the meeting he proposed to Biden to deploy HIMARS systems, attack helicopters and other airspace surveillance systems in the Baltic countries.