NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg states that he does not see any changes in the state of Russia's nuclear forces, as he considers it a mistake to cancel the long-planned exercises to deter a nuclear attack due to the war in Ukraine.
"President Putin's veiled nuclear threats are dangerous and irresponsible. Russia knows that a nuclear war cannot be won and can never be fought. We are closely monitoring Russia's nuclear forces and do not see any changes in Russia's position, but remain vigilant," he said on Tuesday in Brussels at a press conference on the eve of the meeting of NATO defense ministers, which will take place in Brussels on October 12-13.
The Secretary General also announced that next week NATO will hold a long-planned exercise to deter "Steady Noon".
"This training was planned a long time ago, even before the invasion of Ukraine. These are routine exercises that we have talked about openly, and it would be wrong if we canceled these planned exercises because of the war in Ukraine. This would be a completely false signal: NATO is predictable, and this is the best way to prevent escalation," Stoltenberg explained.
He assured that NATO is ready "for any threats and attacks against allies and for this reason we have NATO to be able to repel nuclear threats as well."
This was important both before and after the invasion of Ukraine. The nuclear rhetoric of Putin and Russia is very dangerous. Russia knows that a nuclear war cannot be won and it can never be fought. And we also clearly conveyed to Russia that there will be serious consequences if they use nuclear weapons in any way," the Secretary General of the alliance recalled.
