There are worries that Putin’s troops would escalate the confrontation as evidence of a massive freight train carrying specialized military equipment from a branch of the Russian Defense Ministry that is in charge of nuclear weapons has emerged.
In footage published on Sunday by pro-Russian station Rybar, a number of BPM-97 armored personnel carriers (APCs) and other military vehicles can be seen driving across central Russia.
The APCs are said to have been modified with stronger ambush and mine-proof armor, more powerful turrets, and an air purifying system that enables its occupants to work successfully in the face of prolonged infantry assaults.
According to reports, the 12th Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense is the owner of such cutting-edge military equipment, the likes of which have hardly ever been used on the frontlines in Ukraine.
This specialized division is responsible for the storage, upkeep, and delivery of weapons to organizations like the Strategic Rocket Forces, a section of the Russian military that manages nuclear missiles and is a crucial component of Putin’s nuclear program.
The deployment of such forces, according to military expert Konrad Musyka, may be a hint that the belligerent Russian president would escalate the confrontation or be the start of extensive nuclear training.
A major Putin supporter, Ramzan Kadyrov, said that Russia’s military should employ “low-yield nuclear weapons” to shift the tide of the conflict in Ukraine as NATO alerted member states that Russia’s cutting-edge Belgorod nuclear submarine had departed its White Sea base.
According to Muzyka, the transfer of large pieces of military equipment from nuclear-armed troops does not necessarily indicate that Russia is getting ready to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
However, he said that Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces (RVSN) are known to conduct significant training exercises in the fall and that it may be a “signal to the West that Moscow is intensifying” the confrontation.
The greatest and most sophisticated nuclear defense and deterrent program in the world is built around the RVSN, a part of the Russian armed forces.
It is made up of dozens of missile regiments that are in charge of maintaining and protecting their launch facilities as well as thousands of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that are nuclear capability.
Vasily Kashin, a military and political expert at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, stated, “We are in a position where the West has the advantage in resources and conventional armament.”
But Russia’s nuclear weapons is what gives it power, you say.
The relocation of such equipment, according to Muzyka, may be a precursor to Russia’s notorious “Grom” (Thunder) nuclear deterrent drill.
The Grom military exercises, which were most recently held in October 2019, bring together units from Russia’s land, air, and sea-based nuclear arsenals to test their operational reaction in the event of a nuclear confrontation.
According to The Diplomat, thousands of soldiers participated in nuclear readiness exercises with more than 200 ICBM launch facilities, hundreds of military aircraft, and a number of nuclear vessels and submarines.
The Grom drills will take place once again in 2022, according to Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defense minister, but it is unclear if the situation in Ukraine would necessitate any alterations to the schedule.
An important Russian nuclear submarine has reportedly departed its station in the northern Russian White Sea, according to a NATO alert. This has raised concerns about the movement of the 12th Main Directorate’s military equipment.
The K-329 Belgorod submarine, which recently joined the Russian navy’s active roster in July 2022, may be traveling to the Kara Sea to test the dreaded Poseidon underwater nuclear drone, according to the warning notice.
According to legend, Poseidon can travel over great miles underwater before exploding with enough energy to produce a nuclear tsunami that is intended to drown and irradiate coastal towns.
The Kara Sea is a vast, Russian-controlled island in the Arctic circle that has long been utilized as a nuclear weapons testing site. It is situated off the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya.
It was the scene of the greatest nuclear explosion ever seen in 1961 when the USSR destroyed the Tsar Bomba, a nuclear weapon lowered from its original design because it was deemed too risky to test. Its force was 10 times greater than all of the weapons used in World War II.
Ramzan Kadyrov, a Putin loyalist and warlord from Chechnya, said this weekend on Telegram that Russia should impose martial rule in border towns near Ukraine and use low-yield nuclear bombs to make up for recent military setbacks.
“We need to take more serious actions,” he continued, “but I don’t know what the Defence Ministry submits to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief [Putin].”
Kadyrov openly expressed his wish for nuclear weapons to be used to launch an attack on Ukrainian territory while criticizing Putin’s troops for failing to defeat the alleged “Satanists and fascists” in Ukraine.