E-Paper
Putin's nuke alert aimed to distract from Ukraine crisis: British govt
Defence secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News that the nuclear alert is not linked to practical steps to increase readiness to use the weapons.
The British government said on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin's nuclear deterrent alert aimed at Ukraine was rhetoric designed to distract people from Moscow's full-scale attack. Defence secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News that the nuclear alert is not linked to practical steps to increase readiness to use the weapons.
"He's made this comment. We keep it under review. But you know, what we shouldn't really forget is that this is a big attempt to distract away from his troubles in Ukraine by just deploying into the sort of media space these phrases," Wallace told Sky news.
Wallace pointed out that the Russian President behaved irrationally in his decision to invade Ukraine. The British defence secretary refused to speculate about Putin's actions but said that Western countries will maintain a state of readiness.
“The language that President Putin has used doesn't actually link to anything off a Russia readiness procedure. It's really, we assess, him putting the deterrent into the communication space, reminding people that he has a deterrent,” Wallace also said.
On Sunday, Vladimir Putin instructed to increase the readiness of Russia's nuclear weapons amid fears that the full-scale attack on Ukraine might lead to a nuclear war.
Apart from Britain, the United States has also targeted Putin's nuclear alert by saying it represents an unacceptable escalation of the invasion in Ukraine. The Pentagon added that Putin's alert is genuine and there is no information as to how it will be implemented.
In a few hours from now, Russia and Ukraine will hold talks in Belarus on resolving the issue. However, the talks will come as Moscow continues to invade Ukraine which has caused over 350 civilian fatalities.
