(AP) - A senior Russian official says the country’s nuclear arsenal should help deter the West from intervening in the war in Ukraine.
Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the state corporation Roscosmos, noted in televised remarks Wednesday that the Russian nuclear stockpiles include tactical nuclear weapons along with the nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Rogozin pointed at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning to other countries not to meddle with the Russian action in Ukraine. “The Russian Federation is capable of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at any distance,” Rogozin said.
Rogozin’s statement comes amid Western fears that Russia could use battlefield nuclear weapons against Ukraine amid the stalled Russian offensive. U.S. officials have long warned that Russia’s military doctrine envisages an “escalate to deescalate” option of using battlefield nuclear weapons to force the enemy to back down in a situation when Russian forces face an imminent defeat in a conventional conflict. Moscow has denied having such designs.
HOW MANY RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN TROOPS HAVE DIED?
An exact figure has been hard to pinpoint, as official numbers have not been regularly released by either country.
NATO estimated Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have lost their lives — the alliance’s first public estimate on Russian casualties since the war began. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.
Back on March 2, Russia said nearly 500 soldiers had died and almost 1,600 wounded.
The most recent figure for Ukraine’s military losses came from Zelenskyy on March 12, when he said that about 1,300 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed.