At a meeting that Russian President Vladimir Putin held with Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov to discuss the situation in Ukraine, the Russian president has ordered nuclear standby.
Vladimir Putin, in response to aggressive statements from Western officials, ordered the Ministry of Defense to put the Russian deterrence forces on special duty, TASS reports.
At the meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, Putin noted that Western officials not only took unfriendly actions against Moscow in the economic sphere, but also made a number of aggressive statements.
According to the Defense Ministry, the strategic deterrence forces (SDF) make the backbone of the combat power of the Russian Armed Forces and are designed to deter aggression against Russia and its allies. The SDF can also be used to defeat the aggressor, including in a war with the use of nuclear weapons.
The SDF include the Strategic Offensive Forces and the Strategic Defensive Forces.
The Strategic Offensive Forces, which include the Strategic Missile Forces, form the basis of the Strategic Nuclear Forces, armed with intercontinental missiles and aviation systems, as well as long-range precision weapons.
The Strategic Offensive Forces also include strategic non-nuclear forces as dual-purpose forces – formations and units of strategic and long-range bombers of the Air Force, as well as submarines, surface ships and naval missile-carrying aircraft of the Navy with conventional long-range precision weapons.
The Strategic Defensive Forces are based on the combat-ready forces and means of the Aerospace Defense Forces, which include a missile attack warning system, a space control system, anti-missile defense and anti-space defense, and air defense systems.
