Russia feared to be planning major nuclear test near border with Ukraine: report
Russian President Vladimir Putin is feared to be planning a nuclear test on the border with Ukraine — while officials in Kyiv are already handing out potassium iodide pills to protect against a possible nuke strike.
NATO has issued an intelligence report to its members and allies warning that the Kremlin is planning to test so-called “doomsday” Poseidon nuclear torpedo drones, according to the Times of London.
Putin plans to test it near the Ukraine frontier as proof he is willing to make good on his threat to “use all the means at our disposal,” including weapons of mass destruction, sources told the paper.
The reported warning comes as Russia is believed to have deployed some of its nuclear arsenals, including the world’s largest submarine, the Belgorod, which is capable of carrying Poseidon nukes, the so-called “weapon of the apocalypse.”
A train spotted carrying weaponry to the front lines was also thought to be run by the shadowy force responsible for the Kremlin’s nuclear arsenal.
A senior UK defense source told the Times that Putin will most likely display his readiness to use nukes somewhere in the Black Sea.
However, it is “not impossible” that Putin could fire a smaller, tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine itself, the report said.
That carries extra risk because “they could misfire and accidentally hit a Russian city close to the Ukrainian border, such as Belgorod,” the source added.