Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov announced military readiness of Russia to enter into a direct “hot” conflict with NATO if it does not withdraw troops from Ukraine.
This is the second statement by a senior Russian official after Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who warned a few hours ago that “The United States and Great Britain are going to strike at the Russian territory of Crimea with American HIMARS missile systems and Storm Shadow cruise missiles,” and warned that “Russia will strike back”without specifying how and which one.
The usually soft-spoken and mostly diplomatic head of the Russian Foreign Ministry S. Lavrov stated: “If NATO through the mouth [генсека альянса Йенса] Stoltenbeg once again declares that they are against freezing, as they say, the conflict in Ukraine, which means they want to fight. Well, let them fight!”. About this he told reporters following the meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
The head of Russian diplomacy stressed that Russia is ready for this. “We have long understood the goals of NATO in the situation around Ukraine. These goals were formed for many years after the coup. Now NATO is trying to implement them”– he said.
According to Lavrov, gradually some politicians and experts in the West “there is a sobering up and understanding of the true causes of what is happening and what is actually happening on earth”. However, he added, “if they declare at the same time that they are not waging a war against Russia, but in fact they are doing exactly this, recognizing that without pumping the Ukrainian regime with weapons, without providing intelligence data, information from satellites, and goal-setting, the Ukrainian situation would have ended long ago, this is actually recognition that they are a direct participant in the hybrid, and even hot, war declared against Russia,” quotes the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, TASS agency.
In this case, the war will easily escalate into a nuclear one, since neither side wants to lose tactical advantage.
Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads in the world. By 2022, Moscow controls about 5,977 of these warheads, compared to 5,428 controlled by the US.
About 1,500 of these warheads have been retired (but are likely to be operational), 2,889 are in reserve, and about 1,588 are deployed in land, sea and air vehicles.
About 812 are deployed to ballistic missile bases (IRBM), about 576 to submarine ballistic missile (SRBM) bases and about 200 to strategic bomber bases (ALCM).
The United States has deployed approximately 1,644 strategic nuclear warheads.
Russia appears to have about 400 nuclear-tipped ICBMs, which can carry up to 1,185 nuclear warheads, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Russia has 10 nuclear-armed submarines that can carry up to 800 nuclear warheads and about 60-70 Tu-160, Tu-22 and Tu-95 strategic bombers.
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