President Vladimir Putin has ordered his military’s nuclear deterrent forces to be on alert as international tension builds over Russia’s four-day-old invasion of Ukraine.
Putin said in a meeting of top officials on Sunday that the move was in response to leading NATO powers making what he called “aggressive statements,” according to Tass, the state-owned Russian news agency.
Russia, like the United States, has thousands of nuclear warheads that it maintains as a deterrent to an attack.
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The move is also a reaction to the West announcing hard-hitting financial sanctions against Russian businesses and key individuals, including Putin himself, the president said in televised comments.
The Russian defense minister, Sergey Shoygu, and the chief of the military’s general staff have been ordered to put the nuclear deterrent forces in a what was described as a “special regime of combat duty.”
This is a developing story, check back here for updates soon.
The Associated Press contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
