General Vladimir Kulishov, First Deputy Director and Head of Russia’s Federal Security Service’s (FSB) Border Service said that NATO was stepping up its training close to Russian borders, which included nuclear drills, in an interview with the Ria Novosti news site on the occasion of Russia’s “Border Guard Day.”
“Near the Russian border, NATO’s reconnaissance activities are increasing, the intensity of operational combat training of the alliance’s troops is growing, during which scenarios for conducting combat operations against the Russian Federation, including the launch of nuclear strikes on our territory, are being worked out,” he said.
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Kulishov went on to say: “The situation requires taking appropriate steps to protect and secure our borders.”
He also spoke about the efforts having to be made by Russian border guards to defend against attempts, by what he termed “Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups,” to infiltrate Russian territory in the Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod Regions as well as the Crimean Republic. He said that in 2023, more than 5,500 attempts to enter Russia by “international terrorist and extremist organizations,” and “special services and armed formations of Ukraine,” had been prevented.
Kulishov said the number of missile and artillery strikes on Russian territory is increasing and drone attacks on Russia’s military, transport, energy and social infrastructure are becoming more intense.
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He made these comments on the day after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on Western nations to lift the restrictions placed on Kyiv in the use of its long-range weapons.
Stoltenberg said some states within the alliance had lifted restrictions on providing specific weapons to Ukraine, though others had not and called on those continuing to limit their arms supplies to reconsider their position in light of the “nature of the fighting taking place in Kharkiv.”
He said: “By having too many restrictions we are tying one hand of the Ukrainian armed forces behind their back because they are reducing their capability to defend themselves,” adding, “these are national decisions, not NATO decisions.”
In turn the Kremlin’s Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told Izvestia “that NATO is flirting with military rhetoric, increasing the degree of escalation and falling into military ecstasy.”
Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, accused Stoltenberg of “exceeding his authority... [and he] has already been besieged by NATO members themselves,” in reference to a statement by Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, that Ukraine should use Western weapons only within its own territory.
Ria Novosti said that Russia had no option but to react to the increasingly bellicose statements by certain NATO nations, which included comments by French President Emmanuel Macron on the possibility of direct intervention in the Ukrainian conflict and the report by Germany’s Der Spiegel on Sunday that the Baltic countries and Poland had “warned” Germany that they could send troops to Ukraine if the situation develops unfavorably for Kyiv.
The news site said that the recent non-strategic nuclear weapons drills in the Southern Military District were carried out on the orders of President Vladimir Putin, as he felt the latest NATO pronouncements were triggering “an unprecedented round of escalation of tension that requires special attention and measures.”
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