Pentagon Claims Russia Planning Nuclear War Drills As ‘Warning’ To West Over Ukraine
Francesco Abbruzzino, The Uncensored Report, LLC
An alarmist new report from Financial Times cites US intelligence officials who say that Russia will use upcoming nuclear exercises in order to ‘scare’ and warn NATO against reacting militarily to any Russian incursion into Ukraine.
“US military and intelligence officials believe Russia is planning a major nuclear weapons exercise this month as a warning to Nato not to intervene if President Vladimir Putin decides to invade,” the new FT article begins.
“Russia generally holds its annual nuclear exercises — which involve testing intercontinental ballistic missiles from land, sea and air — in the fall. But the US believes Putin has decided to hold them earlier this year as a show of strength.“
According to Thursday Congressional testimony cited in the report by Joint Chiefs chairman General Mark Milley and director of national intelligence Avril Haines, the Pentagon believes the exercises will likely be moved up to as early as mid-February. The drill will be a “show of force” aimed at both Ukraine and its Western backers in NATO.
Analyst Rebeccah Heinrichs with the hawkish D.C. think tank Hudson Institute described that given Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, “It would be an extremely provocative and harbinger of messages if they did it concurrently with an invasion.”