NATO’s latest nuclear exercise is untimely, considering the ongoing Ukraine conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday.
The annual ‘Steadfast Noon’ drill, which was launched earlier in the day, involves around 2,000 military personnel, over 60 aircraft, and 13 members of the US-led military bloc. European NATO members are training to deploy US-provided weapons under the organization’s nuclear sharing arrangement.
”Under the circumstances of a ‘hot war’ being waged in the framework of the Ukraine conflict… these exercises will lead to nothing but ratcheting up the tensions even higher,” Peskov said at a regular briefing.
The US keeps dozens of nuclear weapons in several parts of Europe, including Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Türkiye, according to military experts. The UK, which has its own nuclear stockpile, takes part in joint missions, while France, another nuclear NATO ally, does not take part in the scheme.
Moscow has long considered this system to be against the spirit of nuclear non-proliferation. Russian officials are critical of countries being involved which do not host US nuclear weapons on their soil, but have military aircraft capable of deploying them.
Last year, Moscow announced that it will mirror America’s relationship with the hosts of its nuclear weapons by stationing Russian weapons in Belarus, a close ally. This summer, the two countries staged a joint exercise to test the procedures for deploying tactical nuclear weapons, calling it a response to a string of belligerent statements by senior Western officials.