Deputy foreign minister says Russia ‘ready to use nuclear weapons to ensure security’

A nuclear threat in the Ukraine war

In a recent interview, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Galuzin, said that Russia and its ally Belarus are constantly ready to use all available means to ensure their security.

Russia and key ally Belarus, who regularly hold joint military drills, conducted readiness checks in case they were needed, Galuzin told Izvestia newspaper.

“We remain ‌in a constant state of readiness to employ all means, including ⁠nuclear ones, to ensure the security of the Union State”, Galuzin added, as he referred to the political, security ⁠and economic alliance between Russia and Belarus.

Neighbouring Belarus has offered assistance in Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, which started in February of 2022, and remains one of Russia's staunchest allies.

In an unsuccessful attempt to give Moscow as short a route as possible to Kyiv, Belarus allowed Russia to launch part of its 2022 invasion from the country.

Meanwhile, citing Ukraine intelligence sources, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned in recent months about a possible repeat of that scenario.

In the meantime, Russia is ‘withdrawing forces’

As it’s made nuclear threats, analysts have said that Russia is reportedly withdrawing forces from one part of the frontline, as Ukraine's drone strikes make its defence “increasingly untenable”.

The Institute for the Study of War cited the Crimea-based Ukrainian partisan group Atesh in making the claims.

According to the group, one of its agents at the Russian Dnepr Group of Force HQ reported that elements of Moscow's 337th Airborne Regiment were abandoning their positions on the northern and western parts of the Kinburn Spit due to “completely disrupted” supplies.

As its losses mounted, the agent also claimed that ammunition, fuel and food deliveries had been halted and Russian forces on the spit had been unable to stop Ukrainian drone strikes.

It is also reported that Russia had begun redeploying an unspecified number of troops to a part of the “Zaporizhzhia sector”.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Southern Defence Forces said they couldn't confirm or deny the Atesh report.