Vladimir Putin put Russia’s nuclear force on high alert on Sunday, February 27, 2022, and said he was answering “aggressive statements” from NATO. Washington called the order an unacceptable escalation. NATO described “dangerous rhetoric” and accused him of acting “irresponsibly”. A prime minister quoted in The Independent saw a plainer motive: Russian troops were meeting “more resistance than the Kremlin had bargained for”.
The record shows the signals kept coming.
Belarus, March 2023
On Saturday, March 25, 2023, Putin announced that Russia would put tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil. Reuters reported that the announcement, aimed at NATO over its military backing for Ukraine, ranked among the sharpest nuclear signals Moscow had sent since invading, then 13 months earlier. Tactical weapons are the kind meant for specific battlefield gains rather than the destruction of cities.
Putin told state television the plan was nothing unusual, because the United States had “long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries”. He added that Russia would honour its nonproliferation obligations and would not hand control of the weapons to Belarus. Even so, Reuters said it would be Russia’s first basing of such arms beyond its borders since the mid-1990s. Experts told the agency the step mattered because Moscow had long boasted that, unlike Washington, it kept its nuclear weapons at home.
A senior US administration official responded cautiously. Washington saw no sign that Moscow planned to use the weapons, the official said, and Russia and Belarus had been discussing a transfer for some time.
Behind the move lay a change in how the Kremlin described the war. It had drifted away from “demilitarization” of its neighbour and toward a fight against “the collective West”.
The 2024 address
The next big warning came in a speech. On February 29, 2024, Putin spoke for more than two hours to Russia’s Federal Assembly. The Kremlin had billed the annual address as something close to a campaign platform, since a March election with no serious rival for a fifth term was coming. He never mentioned the vote.
He did talk about nuclear war. If Ukraine’s Western backers went further, by sending troops for example, the consequences for the “invaders” would be “tragic”, Putin said. “They must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” he said, and went on to describe a “real threat of a nuclear conflict that will mean the destruction of our civilization”. NPR noted the remarks followed by days French President Emmanuel Macron’s comment that Western governments could not exclude sending ground troops to Ukraine.
Kaliningrad, 2026
The newest warning is a diplomatic memo sent to NATO members on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, according to Reuters. It said Russia was ready to draw on everything it has, nuclear weapons included, if the alliance tried to cut off Kaliningrad. The memo claimed Moscow had “information that NATO is preparing an air and naval blockade of Kaliningrad”.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called the document unhelpful and told Russia to “stop the nuclear threats”. NATO is a defensive alliance, he said, and “Putin knows that he can never win” in a direct clash.
The territory is not a minor target. Kaliningrad sits against Poland and Lithuania, two NATO states, and is home to the Baltic fleet and to Iskander missiles described as nuclear-ready. The war is past the four-and-a-half-year mark and tension is spreading to neighbours. Poland has raised its air defence posture after alleged airspace incursions. Danish officials said a Russian warship fired a pair of flares close to one of their military helicopters above the Baltic.
Sources
- Putin puts nuclear forces on alert as west steps up sanctions (The Independent)
- Putin says Moscow to place nuclear weapons in Belarus (Rappler/Reuters)
- Putin warns West risks nuclear war with Russia if its troops enter Ukraine (NPR)
- Russia warns NATO of possible nuclear response if Kaliningrad is cut off (Al Jazeera/Reuters)
