Ukraine fears nuclear threat as Russia steps up military action on border

Ukraine’s defence minister has said Russia is preparing to potentially store nuclear weapons in Crimea and warned Moscow could attack Ukraine to ensure water supplies for the annexed peninsula.

Andrii Taran, speaking just before an emergency NATO meeting with allied defence and foreign ministers, also said he could not rule out the possibility that Russian forces in Crimea could “undertake substantive military provocations” this year.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014, in a move that triggered Western sanctions against Moscow.

“Crimea’s infrastructure is being prepared for potentially storing nuclear weapons,” Mr Taran told the European Parliament’s sub-committee on defence. “The very presence of nuclear munitions in the peninsula may spark a whole array of complex political, legal and moral problems.”

Mr Taran provided no evidence for his assertion. Any decision to move nuclear weapons to Crimea would mark a significant worsening in East-West tensions.

It would also strain a newly extended arms control treaty between the US and Russia, which imposes restrictions on the land and submarine-based missiles used to carry nuclear warheads.

Fighting has increased in recent weeks in eastern Ukraine, where government forces have battled Russian-backed separatists in a seven-year conflict that Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people. NATO says the number of Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s borders is the highest since 2014.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin met NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at NATO HQ in Brussels yesterday to discuss the crisis ahead of the meeting of all 30 allies by video conference.

“We have a number of very important issues to talk about, not the least of which is Russia,” Mr Austin said. “And I certainly share your concern with the recent build-up on the Ukraine border of Russian forces.”

On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to reduce the tensions stirred by the military build-up on the border and proposed a summit of the estranged leaders to tackle a raft of disputes.

The White House and the Kremlin reported only the second conversation between the two since Mr Biden took office in January, after Western officials urged Moscow to end the build-up and Russia, in words recalling the Cold War, said its “adversary” should keep US warships well away from the Crimea region.

In a sign of concern about tensions spinning out of control, Mr Biden phoned Mr Putin to propose they meet in a third country while underlining US commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“President Biden also made clear that the United States will act firmly in defence of its national interests in response to Russia’s actions, such as cyber intrusions and election interference,” the White House said in a statement.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu

said NATO was deploying 40,000 troops and 15,000 pieces of military equipment near Russia’s borders, mainly in the Black Sea and the Baltic regions.

The Western alliance denies any such plans.

Online Editors