Deserted Russian officer: 'Putin prepared nuclear base for combat'
On the day that Russia's invasion of Ukraine began (24 February 2022), a Russian nuclear weapons base was put ‘on full alert’. So says a Russian deserter in a testimony to the BBC.
By the way, this is said to be a highly secret nuclear weapons base in Russia, which Putin made completely combat-ready right at the start of his invasion.
‘Before that, we only had exercises. But on the day the war started, the weapons were all ready. We were ready to send them into the sea and air and - in theory - to carry out a nuclear attack,’ he says. He also explains that already on the first day of the war, a battle alert was in effect and his unit was ‘locked up’ in the nuclear base.
And the Russian deserter's testimony is consistent with other statements by Russian servicemen, BBC stresses. Three days after his troops crossed Ukrainian borders, President Vladimir Putin announced that the nuclear deterrent forces had been ordered to enter ‘special combat mode’. ‘We could only rely on state television. I really didn't know what it all meant, I was performing my duties on autopilot. We were not fighting at the front, we were just guarding the nuclear weapons,’ the man testified. It was only after two to three weeks that the state of readiness was lifted again.
(SR for Tagtik/Source: BBC/Illustration picture by Bernd vdB via Wikimedia Commons licensed under Public domain)