by Jonathan Landay
NORTH OF KHERSON, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russia on Wednesday carried out nuclear deterrence exercises involving submarines, strategic bombers and ballistic missiles, amid warnings from Moscow of a risk of an “uncontrolled escalation” of the war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has remotely supervised these annual maneuvers, dubbed “Thunder” (“Grom” in Russian) and intended to check the readiness of Russia’s response capabilities in the event of a nuclear attack.
Test firings of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads and cruise missiles by TU-95M bombers have been successfully carried out, Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov said.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday that Moscow had informed it of its intention to carry out these exercises, which coincide with NATO nuclear deterrence maneuvers and are part of a context of tension exacerbated by Moscow’s accusations, reiterated on Wednesday by Vladimir Putin, that Ukraine is considering resorting to a “dirty bomb” – conventional explosives loaded with radioactive materials.
Accusations without proof rejected en bloc by Kyiv and the West, who suspect the Kremlin of “preparing the spirits for a new aggravation of the conflict in Ukraine”, as the American State Department declared on Monday.
IN THE TRENCHES NORTH OF KHERSON
On the battlefield, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that its forces repelled Ukrainian army attacks in southern and eastern Ukraine.
Oleksi Reznikov, the Ukrainian Defense Minister, said the wet weather and the nature of the terrain made it more difficult for Ukrainian forces to counter-offensive in the Kherson region (south) than in the northeast, where Russian troops were pushed back tens of kilometers in September.
According to Ukrainian soldiers interviewed on the front line north of Kherson, Russian troops in the area are reinforcing their positions around the provincial capital.
Their unit controls a network of trenches dug in three directions facing the Russian lines. Recent rains have turned the dirt tracks you have to take to get there to mud.
“The media say that the Russians are afraid and will withdraw their troops, but that’s not true,” explains the commander of the unit, who goes by the nickname “Nikifor”.
“They are very active in this area. They bombard every day, build trenches and prepare their defence,” he adds.
Ukrainian officers say that according to intercepted radio messages, newly mobilized Russian conscripts have been deployed to the front. They observe that Russian shelling has resumed with intensity recently after having decreased markedly earlier in the month.
(With Reuters offices, written by Andrew Osborn, French version Jean-Stéphane Brosse, edited by Jean-Michel Bélot)