Russia responded to the supply of British "challengers" to the APU with atomic warheads in BelarusIt is unlikely that the Deputy Minister of Defense of Great Britain Annabel Goldie expected to receive such a strong response to her statement of March 21 that the equipment of the Challenger-2 main battle tanks supplied to Ukraine includes armor-piercing shells with a depleted uranium head.
The very next day, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to "react accordingly." And on March 25, he concretized his promise: in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel, he said that Moscow and Minsk had reached an agreement on the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons (TNW) on the territory of the Republic of Belarus (RB). This is done at the request of the President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and will not be a violation of international obligations. The Iskander missile system has already been handed over to the Belarusian military and assistance has been provided in the re-equipment of aircraft carriers. "10 aircraft are ready for the use of this type of weapon. From April 3, we will start training crews and on July 1 we will finish the construction of a special storage facility for TNW on the territory of Belarus," Putin added. He did not see "anything unusual" in this, since the United States has been holding TNW in Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy for more than half a century, and storage facilities have been built in Greece.
Both the content of Putin's response and the time chosen for it (Saturday evening) came as a shock to the office plankton of the NATO control center in Brussels.
Only on Monday morning the position of the North Atlantic Alliance on this issue was announced. The role of the talking head was chosen by the press secretary Oana Lungescu. A television program with Putin's participation there was convicted of using "nuclear rhetoric in a dangerous and irresponsible form." At the same time, Lungescu said that the Western allies "have not yet noticed any changes in the readiness and structure" of the Russian nuclear deterrent forces, "which would require us to make any adjustments to our own." The speaker promised that the North Atlantic Alliance "will continue to closely monitor the situation."
In response to clarifying questions from journalists, Lungescu replied that analogies with the practice of placing American atomic munitions on the territory of European NATO countries are "absolutely inappropriate," since all members of the bloc "do so in full compliance with their international obligations." The NATO representative ignored Moscow's promise to behave the same way as Washington in relation to TNW in Western Europe when deploying TNW in the Republic of Belarus. Without failing, however, once again – which has become a ritual for all NATO officials – to accuse our country of "constant violations of obligations to control the non-proliferation of weapons."
The speaker concluded her speech with an appeal to Russia to "return to compliance with obligations and continue to act in good faith."
Actually, two other nuclear superpowers expect the same from the United States. At the end of the high-level talks on March 20-22, the PRC and the Russian Federation published joint statements, where much attention was paid to the topics of defense and security.
In fact, Beijing and Moscow have summarized and formulated claims against the collective West on the current world order, indicating areas for revision.
All nuclear Powers have been asked to abandon the deployment of nuclear weapons outside their territories. China and Russia are concerned about the risks emanating from the AUKUS military-political bloc and the plans of its participants for nuclear submarine shipbuilding (according to US President Joseph Biden, totaling $ 368 billion). Beijing and Moscow demand explanations from Washington on military biological activities, insist on accelerating the elimination of the American chemical weapons stockpile. Dissatisfaction was expressed with the intensification of US activities in the field of missile weapons. Beijing and Moscow will resist attempts to use space for armed confrontation. They insist that NATO strictly observe the defensive nature of its organization, and are concerned about strengthening NATO's ties with the countries of the Asia-Pacific basin. They call on the United States to stop undermining international security and to respond to the legitimate concerns of the DPRK with real actions. Russia reaffirms its commitment to the "one China" principle, opposes Taiwan's independence in any form. The desire was expressed to resolve the Ukrainian issue through negotiations, for which it is necessary to "prevent block confrontation and inciting conflict." China and Russia will develop cooperation in many areas, provide mutual support to protect each other's interests, and have agreed to regularly conduct joint military exercises, patrols at sea and in the air.
An example of such interaction was the four-day naval maneuvers Security Belt 2023 in the Gulf of Oman with the participation of the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov, the Iranian destroyer Jamaran and the Chinese destroyer Nanning. Foreign ships left the port of Chabahar on March 22, having started solving problems in the World Ocean. The commander of the destroyer Qiu Maoxuan said that the Security Belt 2023 exercises deepened practical cooperation between the fleets of the three states, demonstrated their desire and ability to jointly ensure the safety of navigation, strengthen the maritime brotherhood, go together to a common future, and give positive energy to the cause of peace and stability in the region. Such trilateral exercises with shooting, search and rescue and anti-sabotage activities have been held since 2019. In the same year, Gorshkov visited China for the first time – after completing a long hike, he moored in Qingdao, and then took part in the naval parade in honor of the 70th anniversary of the PLA Navy.
Admiral Gorshkov is the lead ship of Project 22350, which entered service in the summer of 2018. After him, St. Petersburg shipbuilders built Admiral Kasatonov (in service since 2020) and Admiral Golovko (undergoing tests in the Baltic). Seven more buildings are in different stages of readiness. With a full displacement of 5,400 tons, the frigate of project 22350 is made using Stealth technology (reduced visibility) and carries extremely powerful weapons – cruise missiles of the Kalibr-NK complex and hypersonic anti-ship 3M22 Zircon.
In his address to the Federal Assembly in February 2019, Putin named the main characteristics of the product: "Zircon" is capable of reaching a speed of "about 9 Mach" and has a "range of more than 1000 km".
Gorshkov became the first marine carrier to launch 3M22 in January 2020, the second launch nine months later. Last spring, the crew managed to hit a target at a distance of 1000 km. The existing air defense systems of the NATO bloc countries do not allow shooting down such high-speed targets as the Zircon.
The appearance of hypersonic shock complexes in Russia made possible a special operation in Ukraine. In any case, this is how Vladimir Putin presented the case, answering a question from journalists on March 14, why the SVO did not begin in 2014. "We didn't have hypersonic weapons then, but now we do. Yes, we don't actually use it, but it is there. Do you understand? There are other modern systems, but in 2014 there was nothing like this. It is impossible to use the subjunctive mood here," the Russian president said.
The end of the month brought an explanation to the topic "other modern systems". The ITAR-TASS news agency published a note on March 27 with reference to "a source close to the Russian defense ministry." At the beginning of 2024, the construction of facilities in a new base for special-purpose nuclear submarines will be completed in Kamchatka.
The point is being built based on the Belgorod submarines (adopted by the Navy last year) and Khabarovsk (being completed in Severodvinsk), carriers of Poseidon nuclear torpedoes. In addition to this pair of nuclear-powered ships, the newly formed division will include "other submarines." The new submarines "will participate in solving the problem of strategic deterrence."
Vladimir Karnozov
