Moscow is studying the possible use of nuclear weapons to defend against a US attack – RIA

March 2 (Reuters) – A Russian Defense Ministry magazine says Moscow is developing a new kind of military strategy with nuclear weapons to protect itself from possible U.S. aggression, the RIA news agency reported on Thursday.

The article adds to other combative comments by Russian politicians and commentators following the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, suggesting that Moscow would be ready, if necessary, to deploy its vast arsenal. nuclear.

According to the RIA, the article, published in the journal Voennaya Mysl (Military Thought), concluded that Washington feared losing its grip on the world and had therefore “apparently” prepared plans to attack Russia in order to neutralize it. .

In response, Russian specialists were “actively developing a promising form of strategic use of Russian armed forces – a strategic deterrence operation,” RIA said.

This “presupposes the use of modern strategic offensive and defensive weapons, nuclear and non-nuclear, taking into account the latest military technologies”.

Moscow, the article said, had to be able to show the United States that it could not disable Russia’s nuclear missile system and that it would not be able to repel a retaliatory strike.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the RIA article.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week suspended a historic nuclear arms control treaty, announced the commissioning of new strategic systems and threatened to resume nuclear testing.

Although Moscow says it would only use nuclear weapons if Russia’s territorial integrity were threatened, Putin’s allies have regularly suggested that calamity could be near.

This week, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev claimed that if the West continued to supply arms to Kiev there was a risk of global catastrophe and repeated the threat of nuclear war by Ukraine.

(Report by David Ljunggren, edited in Spanish by Tomás Cobos)