Viktor Khrenin, the minister of defense of Belarus, claims that the West is actively making preparations for a direct military confrontation with Russia. This reports the German news website n-tv.de.
“Intense military preparations are underway in the West; huge sums of money are being invested for this purpose. It must be understood that in the capitalist world no one puts his fortune into [long-term investments in expensive] weapons and into increasing the army for nothing,” Khrenin underlined. “So one can draw a clear conclusion: The possibility of a direct military clash with NATO in the future is becoming clearer.”
He claims that the only barrier to the West not launching an extensive war is the threat of a nuclear response to its actions.
In Europe and the United States, policymakers and military leaders harbor concerns about Russia’s considerable nuclear potential, as the German news platform Berliner Morgenpost reported. EU foreign ministers agree that political or military chaos in a country with an extensive nuclear arsenal poses a significant threat to Europe. Currently, Russia has about 5900 nuclear warheads, of which between 1588 and 1674 are ready for immediate use, depending on the source. These warheads serve primarily as components of strategic, long-range nuclear missiles with significant destructive power. About half of these immediately deployable nuclear warheads would be fired using surface-to-air missiles, while about 580 are earmarked for nuclear submarines and the remaining portion could be dropped from 60 to 70 heavy bomber aircraft.
Image: Kremlin.ru, Putin-Lukashenko meeting (2022-06-25) 03, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image size modified)
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