Russia-Ukraine War: Vladimir Putin Fires Back at West’s ‘Dirty Bomb’ Accusations, Nuclear Blackmail

On Wednesday, Russia started a series of exercises meant to mimic how it would react to a nuclear assault. These included mock launching of ballistic and nuclear missiles.

The annual "Grom" drill, which translates as "thunder," was remotely supervised by President Vladimir Putin after the Russian leader warned that his military must be prepared to employ "all means available" to thwart foreign foes.

Putin Blames West For Ukraine War

According to Russian state media source RIA Novosti, the test launches of nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles were successful. The launch of a Sienna ICBM from a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, the test fire of a Yars land-based ICBM, and the firing of cruise missiles from Tu-95 strategic bombers were among the specific events.

In accordance with a US-Russia armaments deal, Russia informed the United States in advance about these yearly military drills. The usual Russian military exercise comes as Russian authorities have claimed Ukraine is preparing to use a "dirty bomb," a claim that has been widely refuted by Western officials.

Sergey Shoygu, the Russian defense minister, brought up the concept in recent conversations with his colleagues from the US, France, and the UK, but days before, the foreign ministers from the three Western countries released an united statement calling the Russian assertions "transparently untrue."

Similar to this, Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of NATO, stated on Tuesday that "Russia frequently accuses others of what they intend to do themselves. We have observed this trend previously, and Russia must not invent justifications to escalate the situation. The entire globe is keeping tabs."

Russian authorities allege that Ukraine is conducting its dirty bomb development at two facilities, although Ukrainian officials have welcomed the UN's nuclear monitoring agency to deploy a team of inspectors there, as per Washington Examiner.

Russia-Ukraine War: Putin Downplays Moscow's Defeat

Putin appeared to downplay Russia's losses in its war with Ukraine and claimed that the battle he started was inevitable after years of rising tension when he spoke at a meeting of international policy experts the day after supervising a nuclear training exercise.

The Russian President stated he had no intention of launching a nuclear bomb in Ukraine despite making many subtly disguised references to Russia's nuclear weapons recently: "There is no value in it, not political, nor military," he added. The international order that the West imposed after the fall of the Soviet Union, according to a transcript by The Telegraph, is likewise "coming to an end," according to the Russian leader.

Putin asserted that "humanity now faces a choice: accumulate a load of problems that will inevitably crush us all or try to find solutions that may not be ideal but working and could make the world more stable and secure." He called the current decade among the most "dangerous" and "unpredictable" since World War II.

Putin's speech at the Valdai Club, a Moscow think tank and discussion forum, came after what Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu described as a successful training exercise by the nation's Strategic Deterrence Forces on Wednesday.

The exercise was designed to simulate launching a "massive nuclear strike" in response to a potential nuclear attack on Russia. The idea that Ukraine intends to deploy a "dirty bomb," which mixes explosives and radioactive substances to cause panic but not necessarily harm, has recently been promoted by Russian authorities.

While the United States and its allies have dismissed the claim as false, Ukraine has charged that Russia is ready to detonate such a weapon. Per USA Today, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters Thursday that the Pentagon has not seen any evidence that either side intends to deploy a dirty bomb.