Russia says it's deploying tactical nukes in drills as Ukraine cries 'blackmail'

MOSCOW ? Vladimir Putin's Russia said Monday it would practice deploying tactical nuclear weapons during a military exercise after what Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the U.S.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, it has repeatedly warned of rising nuclear risks ? warnings which the U.S. says it has to take seriously though American officials say they have seen no change in Russia's nuclear posture.

Russia says the United States and its European allies are pushing the world to the brink of confrontation between nuclear powers by supporting Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars of weapons, some of which are being used against Russian territory.

"We do not see anything new here," said Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence. "Nuclear blackmail is a constant practice of Putin's regime."

More: Alexei Navalny, a thorn in Vladimir Putin's side, died. What does it mean for Russia?

Nuke drills near Ukraine

Russia's defense ministry said it would hold military drills including practice for the deployment of tactical nukes. It said the exercises were ordered by President Vladimir Putin.

"During the exercise, a set of measures will be carried out to practice the issues of preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons," the ministry said.

Missile forces in the Southern Military District ? which borders Ukraine ? aviation units and the navy will take part, the defense ministry said.

The exercise is aimed at ensuring Russia's territorial integrity and sovereignty "in response to provocative statements and threats by certain Western officials against the Russian Federation," it said.

More: Donald Trump threatens NATO, says he would 'encourage' Russia to 'do whatever the hell they want'

US, Russia lead in warheads

Russia and the United States are by far the world's biggest nuclear powers, holding more than 10,600 of the world's 12,100 nuclear warheads. China has the third-largest nuclear arsenal, followed by France and Britain.

Russia has about 1,558 non-strategic nuclear warheads, according to the Federation of American Scientists, though there is uncertainty about exact figures for such weapons due to a lack of transparency.

No power has used nuclear weapons in war since the United States unleashed the first atomic bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Major nuclear powers routinely check their nuclear weapons but very rarely publicly link such exercises to specific perceived threats in the way that Russia has.

More: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rebuffs Donald Trump, says he can't 'manage' war with Russia

Biden plays down Russian nuclear threat

President Joe Biden said last year that he felt there was no real prospect of Russia using nuclear weapons but CNN reported that top U.S. officials did contingency planning for a potential Russian nuclear strike against Ukraine in 2022.

Some Western and Ukrainian officials have said Russia is bluffing to scare the West, though the Kremlin has repeatedly indicated that it would consider breaking the nuclear taboo if Russia's existence was threatened.

The Kremlin said it was in response to remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron, British officials and a representative of the U.S. Senate.

Macron has in public raised the idea of sending European troops to fight Russia in Ukraine while British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said that Ukraine had a right to use the weapons provided by London to strike targets inside Russia.

More: NATO troops in Ukraine? French proposal brings a warning from Russia

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Western statements about sending NATO soldiers to Ukraine amounted to "a completely new round of escalation of tension ? it is unprecedented, and of course it requires special attention and special measures".

Putin warned the West in March that a direct conflict between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance would mean the planet was one step away from World War Three but said hardly anyone wanted such a scenario.

Putin casts the Ukraine war as part of a centuries-old battle with the West which, he says, humiliated Russia after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what Moscow considers Russia's historical sphere of influence.

Ukraine and its Western backers say the war is an imperial-style land grab by a corrupt dictatorship. Western leaders have vowed to work for a defeat of Russian forces in Ukraine, while ruling out any deployment of NATO personnel there.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russia deploying tactical nuclear weapons in military drills