According to reports, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent nuclear submarines into the North Atlantic one day after issuing a chilling threat to the West.
Putin ordered his nuclear deterrent forces on alert not long after the invasion of Ukraine, and several Russian submarines capable of carrying 16 ballistic missiles each sailed into the North Atlantic, it has emerged.
Nuclear experts told The Mirror at the time that this was “posturing” rather than a genuine nuclear threat.
They are said to have returned to Russia shortly after, but western intelligence is now keeping a closer eye on Putin’s nuclear arsenal.
Putin has the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads, with 4,447 – thousands of which are thought to be tactful, meaning they are designed to eliminate enemy targets in a specific area without causing widespread devastation.
“The majority of Russian conventional weapons can be retrofitted with a low-yield nuclear capability,” a navy source told The Times.
“It’s not as simple as ‘plug and play,’ but the Russians are quite inventive in what they put in front of bombs and missiles.”
Putin’s justification for invading Ukraine was to “de-Nazify,” not destroy, the country, according to experts, who say there is no evidence that the Kremlin is preparing to launch nuclear weapons.
According to a Western official, there has been no evidence of nuclear warheads being loaded onto missiles destined for Ukraine so far in the conflict.
Dr Matthew Kroenig, Director of the Scowcroft Strategy Initiative at the Atlantic Council, told The Mirror Online that Putin put his nuclear forces on high alert for two reasons.
He said it so Putin would be less vulnerable to a nuclear attack if the weapons were all in one place, and to move them to strategic locations from which they could be launched.
He stated: “This is a component of Russian strategy. I don’t believe we’re preparing for a nuclear war.
“It’s similar to how animals in the animal kingdom make themselves appear enormous before a fight.
“What Putin is trying to do is intimidate us to say ‘stay out of Ukraine'”.
“This development does make things more dangerous with nukes moving around,” he continued, “but Russia did this in 2014, and they use nuclear deterrence as an offensive strategy.”
