Piece posted at 4:50pm in The Times:
Putin orders nuclear military train to Ukraine front line
President Putin is set to demonstrate his willingness to use weapons of mass destruction with a nuclear test on Ukraine’s borders, defence sources have warned.
The Kremlin has been signalling its readiness for a significant escalation as Russia loses ground on the battlefield. Fears that Putin’s earlier hints that he might resort to such tactics were heightened today by claims that a train operated by the secretive nuclear division was destined for Ukraine.
Konrad Muzyka, a defence analyst based in Poland, said the train, spotted in central Russia, was linked to the 12th main directorate of the Russian ministry of defence and that it was “responsible for nuclear munitions, their storage, maintenance, transport, and issuance to units”.
International analysts suggest, however, that a more likely demonstration of Putin’s readiness to use nuclear weaponss_ could come in the Black Sea. A senior defence source said that he faced a significant risk if he chose to deploy a nuclear weapon in the battlefield, as it could go wrong. “They could misfire and accidentally hit a Russian city close to the Ukrainian border such as Belgorod,” the source said. “Then he would have to escalate.”
Sources said Natoo_ had sent an intelligence report to its members and allies alerting them to the fact that Russia is expected to test its nuclear-capable torpedo drone Poseidon, possibly in the Black Sea, which it controls. As officials in Washington draw up possible scenarios for a response, Nato is thought to have reported that the nuclear submarine K-329 Belgorod is headed to the Arctic, having become operational in July.
The Poseidon torpedo, dubbed the “weapon of the apocalypse”, can be launched from the submarine. According to La Repubblica newspaper, it is about to be tested in the area of the Kara Sea, north of the Russian mainland. The Poseidon operates autonomously and is about 24m (78ft) long, with a range of at least 10,000km (6,200 miles).
Russiaa_ acknowledged today that Ukrainian forces had broken through its defences in the southern Kherson region. Igor Konashenkov, a defence ministry spokesman, told reporters that the Ukrainians had seized territory thanks to “superior tank units” and had “penetrated into the depths of our defence”.
The Moscow-based news outlet RBC reported that the commander of Russia’s western military district, Colonel-General Alexander Zhuravlyov, had been dismissed, and would be replaced by Lieutenant-General Roman Berdnikov.
Kherson is one of the four regions illegally annexed by Moscoww_ last week after a sham referendum orchestrated by the Kremlin. The land grab has threatened to push the conflict to a dangerous new level, raising the prospect of a nuclear strike masquerading as a defence of Russian territory.
[[https://www.thetimes.co.uk/topic/ukraine
Ukraine]]e_ has also pushed to regain territory within the region of Luhansk and claimed full control of Russia’s eastern logistics hub, Lyman, in Donetsk.
Professor Andrew Futter, a nuclear weapons expert at the University of Leicester, said the nuclear submarine could perform various tactical functions and was far more than simply a nuclear delivery platform. He suggested that, as in the case of the train, Russia was trying to send a signal to the West that it should stop meddling in the conflict or risk further escalation.
James Rogers, director of research at the Council on Geostrategy, said that he would not rule out a Russian nuclear strike on Ukraine’s advancing forces, no matter how unlikely that seemed. “Given the quality of the decision-making in the Kremlin at the moment, nothing should be discounted. The Russians are getting desperate, but it would be a dramatic escalation and one that countries such as India and even China would surely condemn,” he said.