Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia– President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday took note of nuclear drills in line with his mantra of using all available means to fend off any attacks on Russia’s territory.
According to Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, land, sea, and aviation deterrence forces took part in the drills adding that targets located on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East were obliterated by the Years intercontinental ballistic missile, fired from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk Region, and the Sineva ballistic missile, launched from the Barents Sea, citing that Tu-95 strategic bombers also took part in the exercises.
“(The aim of the drills is to test) Russia’s strategic offensive forces’ readiness to conduct a massive nuclear strike in response to an enemy nuclear strike,” said the Defense Minister.
In recent weeks, the United States (US) and several other Western powers have claimed that Russia is planning to conduct a tactical nuclear strike in Ukraine which Russia has vehemently denied and accusing Ukraine of preparing to set off a dirty bomb to frame Russia.
Meanwhile, the Russian government has called on the United Nations (UN) Security Council to establish a commission to investigate alleged violations of the convention prohibiting the production or use of biological weapons by Ukraine and the United States.
Russia is alleging that the two countries conducted secretive, joint biological research on Ukrainian soil, claiming it had obtained incriminating evidence of those activities during the ongoing military operation.
“We requested a meeting in two days in line with Article VI of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). A variety of documents and evidence that shed light on the true nature of military biological activities of the US and Ukraine on the Ukrainian territory (have been compiled and) the data analysis gives evidence of non-compliance by the American and Ukrainian sides,” said Vassily Nebenzia, the current Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN.
In addition, Nebenzia said Russia was forced to invoke Article VI of the convention to raise the issues with the Security Council after its repeated inquiries were largely ignored by Washington and Kyiv.
Last month, Russia convened a meeting of BCW Member States in Geneva, Switzerland which failed to provide any tangible result, with delegates from 35 out of 89 nations either dismissing the Russian claims or expressing support for the kind of research the US and Ukraine were conducting.
Only seven nations expressed support for Russia, Belarus, China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Syria, and Venezuela.
