Mon 28 January 2022:
The UK Defence Secretary said that Vladimir Putin’s order to activate Russia’s nuclear deterrent was an example of him “flexing his muscles” to divert attention away from the invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking to Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Ben Wallace told LBC: “No, we’re not going to have a nuclear war.
“President Putin is dealing at the moment in rhetoric. He wants to distract from what’s gone wrong in Ukraine. He wants us all to be reminded that he has a nuclear deterrent.
‘My own son asked me about nuclear war.’
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace says Putin is dealing in a rhetoric to distract from his failures in Ukraine. and is ‘flexing his muscles.’@NickFerrariLBC pic.twitter.com/IgIFLyprES
— LBC (@LBC) February 28, 2022
“Britain has a nuclear deterrent. It’s somewhere out there under the sea 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It has kept us safe for decades. It is a deterrent by definition.
“President Putin knows that, and he also knows America and France also have a deterrent.
“This is more about putting it on the table to flex muscles and detract.
“No-one is going to do anything to unnecessarily provoke him or indeed to escalate this beyond trying to deter him from his actions in Ukraine. We know that he gets deterred by might.”
Russia has not made the progress it wanted, the UK Ministry of Defence says. Picture: MoD
Meanwhile, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said missiles hit a radioactive waste disposal site in the capital.
In a statement late on Sunday, International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi said Ukrainian authorities informed his office about the overnight strike, but there are no reports of damage to the buildings or indications of a release of radioactive material.
It comes after Russian nuclear deterrent forces were put on alert by Vladimir Putin as Western nations unleash tough new sanctions on his regime.
New satellite imagery showed a three-mile column of Russian troops and tanks seen “moving towards Kyiv” on Sunday.
The images released by Maxar Technologies showed a deployment comprised of hundreds of military vehicles and extending more than 3.25 miles (5 km), Maxar said.
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