Special Mode of Combat Duty - 27 February 2022
By order of President Vladimir Putin, on 27 February 2022 the Russian deterrence forces were transferred to a special mode of combat duty - they also include strategic nuclear forces. Putin stated this at a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. “You see that Western countries are taking not only unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, I mean illegitimate sanctions that everyone knows about. But the top officials of the leading NATO countries also allow aggressive statements against our country, therefore I order the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff to transfer the containment forces of the Russian army to a special mode of combat duty,” Putin said. What specific measures can be taken now - this is not reported, since the status is usually confidential.
"It is assumed that the crews of the aircraft are ready to take off, or maybe some aircraft have already been raised. For example, long-range radar reconnaissance aircraft. Accordingly, intercontinental ballistic missiles are ready for launch, and submarines that carry ballistic missiles, as a rule, are withdrawn at this time to the open sea," director of the Center for Military-Political Problems Alexey Podberezkin stressed.
Moscow said the move was made at least partly in response to comments by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who told Sky News that unless Putin was stopped in Ukraine, other countries in Eastern Europe would come under threat, leading to a conflict with NATO. “Statements were made by various representatives at various levels on possible altercations, or even collisions and clashes, between NATO and Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on 28 February 2022. “We believe that such statements are absolutely unacceptable.”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin on 28 February 2022 that the duty shifts of the control posts of the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern and Pacific Fleets and the long-range aviation command had begun to carry out combat duty with reinforced personnel.
The order of Russian President Vladimir Putin to transfer the strategic deterrence forces of the RF Armed Forces to a special mode of combat duty cannot be read twice. This was emphasized by the press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov. “What is there to understand? There is neither a second meaning, nor a double bottom, it clearly says: the strategic deterrence forces [to switch to a special mode of combat duty]. This is an absolutely exhaustive command of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief,” Peskov stressed.
Russia's top diplomat Sergey Lavrov said 03 March 2022 there was a "conversation" about nuclear war happening right now, but that it was not happening in Russia. "Everyone understands that WWIII could only be a nuclear war," he said. "But I want to point out that nuclear war keeps bouncing around in the heads of Western politicians, not Russians. I assure you that we will allow no provocations to take us out of balance, but if they start waging a real war against us, people who are hatching those plans should think about that. And, from my perspective, those plans are being hatched."
Germany takes "very seriously" the order of Russian President Vladimir Putin on a special duty regime for the deterrent forces of the Russian Federation, considers such actions irresponsible, said German government spokesman Steffen Hebeshtreit. German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht expressed concern over the transfer of the deterrence forces of the Russian army to a special mode of combat duty. She expressed this opinion on the radio station Deutschlandfunk. "This should be taken very seriously and, above all, monitor our intelligence," Lambrecht said. "We have seen how unpredictable [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is, and so now we must be very vigilant," she argued.
US officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin's order to put the deterrence forces on special alert is part of an approach that involves creating non-existent threats to the country to "justify aggression." NATO has never threatened Russia, according the text of the White House statement.
The United States saw no reason to change its nuclear alert levels, the White House said on 28 February 2022. "We have not changed our own alerts, and we have not changed our own assessment in that front but we also need to be very clear-eyed about his own use of threats," White House Spokeswoman Jen Psaki told MSNBC.
President Joe Biden has shrugged off fears that tensions between Washington and Moscow over the Ukraine crisis will escalate into nuclear war, denying that Americans have any reason to be concerned about risks of such a conflict. Asked by a reporter whether Americans should be worried about nuclear war, Biden curtly replied, “No.” The question came at a spontaneous moment while Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were walking by a group of journalists on Monday during a Black History Month event at the White House. There can be many provocations around the situation with Russia's military operation in Ukraine - both on the borders of Russia and near Crimea, as well as in the airspace, Aleksey Leonkov, editor of Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine, said in a conversation with RBC. The President's order to bring the deterrence forces to a special combat alert regime indicates increased vigilance so that these provocations do not end in tragedy, the expert explained. “Therefore, the regular units of the deterrence forces (the nuclear triad) are put on alert, a thorough check of possible provocations is being carried out in order to prevent unforeseen cases,” Leonkov said.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that Western countries are pushing the world towards a "third world war" by sanctions pressure on Russia due to a special operation in Ukraine. “Now there is a lot of talk against the banking sector. Gas, oil, SWIFT. It's worse than war. This pushes Russia into a third world war. Therefore, here we need to be restrained so as not to get into trouble. Because nuclear war is everything,” he said.
NATO saw no need to change its nuclear alert posture at this stage, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said. “We will always do what is needed to protect and defend our allies, but we don’t think there is any need now to change the alert levels of NATO’s nuclear forces,” Stoltenberg said, speaking to the AP following talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda at an airbase in central Poland 01 March 2022.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the presence of US nuclear weapons in Europe was “unacceptable” to Moscow, and in contravention of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Washington is a party. “It is high time the US nuclear weapons are returned home, and the infrastructure in Europe related to them completely dismantled,” he said.
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