In this photo taken from a video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, on Dec. 9, 2020, a Russian Tu-160 strategic bomber fires a cruise missile at test targets, during a military drills, Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the military will hold drills involving tactical nuclear weapons – the first time such exercise was publicly announced by Moscow.

Russia's Defense Ministry said Monday that the military would hold drills involving tactical nuclear weapons — the first time such an exercise has been publicly announced by Moscow.

A look at tactical nuclear weapons and the part they play in the Kremlin's political messaging.

WHAT ARE TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS?

Unlike nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles that can destroy entire cities, tactical nuclear weapons for use against troops on the battlefield are less powerful and can have a yield as small as about 1 kiloton. The U.S. bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II was 15 kilotons.

Such battlefield nuclear weapons — aerial bombs, warheads for short-range missiles or artillery munitions — can be very compact. Their small size allows them to be discreetly carried on a truck or plane.

Unlike strategic weapons, which have been subject to arms control agreements between Moscow and Washington, tactical weapons never have been limited by any such pacts, and Russia hasn’t released their numbers or any other specifics related to them.

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WHAT HAS PUTIN SAID ABOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS?

Since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly reminded Western nations about Moscow’s nuclear might in a bid to discourage them from increasing military support to Kyiv.

Early on in the war, Putin frequently referenced Moscow’s nuclear arsenal by vowing repeatedly to use “all means” necessary to protect Russia. But he later toned down his statements as Ukraine's offensive last summer failed to reach its goals and Russia scored more gains on the battlefield.

Moscow's defense doctrine envisages a nuclear response to an atomic strike or even an attack with conventional weapons that “threaten the very existence of the Russian state.” That vague wording has led some pro-Kremlin Russian experts to urge Putin to sharpen it to force the West to take the warnings more seriously.

Putin said last fall that he sees no reason for such a change.

“There is no situation in which anything would threaten Russian statehood and the existence of the Russian state,” he said. “I think that no person of sober mind and clear memory could have an idea to use nuclear weapons against Russia.”

WHY DID RUSSIA SEND NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO BELARUS?

Last year, Russia moved some of its tactical nuclear weapons into the territory of Belarus, an ally that neighbors Ukraine and NATO members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.

Belarus' authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, had long urged Moscow to station nuclear weapons in his country, which has close military ties with Russia and served as a staging ground for the war in Ukraine.

Both Putin and Lukashenko said that nuclear weapons deployment to Belarus was intended to counter perceived Western threats. Last year, Putin specifically linked the move to the U.K. government’s decision to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing shells containing depleted uranium.

Neither leader said how many were moved — only that Soviet-era facilities in the country were readied to accommodate them, and that Belarusian pilots and missile crews were trained to use them. The weapons have remained under Russian military control.

The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, which has a 1,084-kilometer (673-mile) border with Ukraine, would allow Russian aircraft and missiles to reach potential targets there more easily and quickly, if Moscow decides to use them. It has also extended Russia’s capability to target several NATO allies in Eastern and Central Europe.

The Kremlin announces nuclear weapons drills in warning to Ukraine's allies

Moscow plans to hold a military exercise simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons, the Defense Ministry announced, just days after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine.

The drills are in response to “provocative statements and threats of certain Western officials regarding the Russian Federation,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement Monday.

The exercise is intended to “increase the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to fulfil combat tasks” and will be held on President Vladimir Putin’s orders, according to the statement. The manoeuvres plan to involve missile units of the Southern Military District along with Russia's air force and navy.

It is the first time that Russia has publicly announced drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, though its strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises.

Tactical nuclear weapons have a lower yield compared to massive warheads that arm ballistic missiles intended to obliterate entire cities.

Instead, tactical nuclear weapons include air bombs, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery munitions and are meant for use on the battlefield.

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Russia has the world's largest nuclear arsenal, with the vast majority of it inherited from the Soviet Union.

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has repeatedly threatened it might use its nukes against its adversaries — which would be the world's first since the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

A message to the West?

The announcement appeared to be a warning to Ukraine’s Western allies about becoming more deeply involved in the more than two-year war.

Some of Ukraine’s Western partners have previously expressed concern about stoking the war amid fears it could spill beyond Ukraine and into a conflict between NATO and Russia.

French President Emmanuel Macron repeated last week that he doesn’t exclude sending troops to Ukraine, and UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Kyiv’s forces will be able to use British long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

The Kremlin branded those comments as dangerous, heightening tension between Russia and NATO. The war has already placed significant strain on relations between Moscow and the West.

News analysis: Why Putin is raising the specter of nuclear weapons again

The Russian army's Iskander missile launchers take position during drills in Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the military will hold drills involving tactical nuclear weapons — the first time such exercises have been publicly announced by Moscow.

Once again, Russian President Vladimir Putin is seemingly rattling the nuclear saber. But why now?

The Kremlin, citing recent comments by Western leaders regarding the war in Ukraine, said Monday that it would soon carry out simulated use of battlefield, or tactical, nuclear weapons — marking the first time Moscow announced such an exercise.

The announcement drew a sharp response. U.S. Defense Department spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder called it “entirely inappropriate.” NATO spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah termed Moscow’s plans “dangerous and irresponsible,” and the European Union called on Russia to “stop the escalation.”

Like so many pronouncements from Moscow, this one’s timing might matter as much as its substance.

This week holds two red-letter days for Putin: his inauguration on Tuesday to yet another presidential term after an unsurprising landslide election win in March, coupled with Thursday’s traditionally bombastic Victory Day celebrations commemorating the Soviet victory over the Nazis.

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It is commonplace for nuclear powers such as Russia — or the United States, for that matter — to conduct checks of their weapons stockpiles. But declaring an explicit connection between exercises involving practice use of nuclear weapons and comments by adversarial governments about an ongoing conflict is an unusual diplomatic move.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the planned tactical nuclear drills near Ukraine were intended to “unconditionally ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state.”

Tactical nuclear weapons, as the term implies, are far smaller and less powerful than strategic nuclear armaments such as intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying nuclear payloads that could lay waste to large population centers. But nuclear threats, even veiled ones, have a way of grabbing everyone’s attention.

Unlike strategic nuclear weapons, battlefield nuclear munitions — which are relatively compact and easily transportable — are not subject to international arms agreements, and Russia’s stockpiles are shrouded in secrecy. Such weapons can be deployed in the form of air-dropped bombs or short-range missiles.

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The Pentagon closely monitors Russia’s nuclear posture, and over the course of the Ukraine war, the Biden administration has reported no changes — even at times when Russian rhetoric suggests heightened tensions.

Western analysts say the latest comments typify a pattern that has taken hold since Putin’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine — that is, any perceived Western escalation is met with Kremlin threats of a nuclear nature, meant to raise the specter of all-out war between Russia and the U.S.-led coalition aiding Ukraine.

Among observers of this conflict, there’s some difference of opinion as to whether these warnings are any more worrisome or significant than similar ones in the past — though many dismissed Monday’s announcement as little more than bluster.

Alexander Clarkson, a European studies lecturer at King’s College in London, suggested that the development did not reflect some carefully calibrated policy messaging by Moscow. Russia’s threshold for use of nuclear weapons, he wrote on the social platform X, is “whatever Putin and a small inner circle of defense apparatchiks think it is when getting out of bed in the morning.”

However, the Kremlin announcement could give fresh ammunition to opponents of further Western aid to Ukraine. During a drawn-out congressional blockade of military assistance — finally resolved with approval last month of $61 billion in aid for Ukraine — far-right Republicans accused the Biden administration and Ukraine’s other Western partners of playing with nuclear fire by continuing to support the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukraine was dismissive of the Russian announcement, saying it is part of a familiar playbook.

"We do not see anything new here," Andriy Yusov, a Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman, said on national television. "Nuclear blackmail is a constant practice of Putin's regime."

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The latest rhetorical flare-up over nuclear weapons comes at a time when Ukraine is undeniably struggling on the battlefield.

A much-vaunted Ukrainian counteroffensive foundered in the summer. Now, as the weather improves, some of the country's allies — and even some Ukrainian defense officials — have voiced concerns about whether Russian forces might exploit weakness in Ukrainian fortifications and break through somewhere along the front lines.

The eastern Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar is considered vulnerable to a Russian onslaught, although it sits on high ground, a position that is usually favorable to the defenders.

For the last several months, Russia has been rattled by a campaign of strikes within its border by Ukrainian forces. The United States has largely enjoined Ukraine to not use American-provided weaponry for such attacks, mainly aimed at Russian energy infrastructure. But close allies such as Britain are not placing similar constraints on Ukrainian forces.

On Monday, Britain’s ambassador to Moscow, Nigel Casey, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry for a formal protest after David Cameron, the former British prime minister who is now the foreign secretary, declared last week that Ukraine had the right to use British armaments to launch strikes inside Russia.

Cameron, who visited the Ukrainian capital last week, said then that Ukraine could decide how to use British-provided long-range weapons, not ruling out strikes on Russian territory. Moscow calls that an abrogation of previous British assurances to the contrary.

Even more irksome to Russia than the Cameron comments were recent remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron, who publicly mused about the idea of sending European troops to Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the British and French statements about such potential deployments “unprecedented” and a “completely new round of escalation of tension.”

Asked Monday about reasons behind the tactical-nuclear-weapons exercise, he pointed in particular to Macron’s remarks.

At the same time, Russia is characterizing its own sharply stepped-up production of conventional weapons such as artillery as necessary in light of actions by Ukraine’s allies.

"We are now at the stage of open confrontation, which I hope will not result in a direct armed conflict," a senior Russian envoy, Ambassador-at-Large Grigory Mashkov, told the state news agency RIA.

He said Moscow would take steps to strengthen its defense capabilities, including bolstering missile stockpiles, “in order to discourage any potential enemy from testing Russia’s strength.”

In recent days, Russia has also railed against North Atlantic Treaty Organization military exercises near its frontiers.

Over the weekend, Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova described the months-long maneuvers, set to run through this month, as a clear signal that the alliance is setting the stage for conflict with Russia. The drills, involving about 90,000 troops, represent NATO’s biggest such exercise since the Cold War.

Russia threatens to strike British military sites over Cameron’s Ukraine weapons pledge

Russian troops load an Iskander ballistic missile onto a mobile launcher 

Russia has threatened to strike British military facilities and said it will hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons in response to UK weapons being used by Ukraine to strike its territory.

British ambassador Nigel Casey was called to the foreign ministry in Moscow for a formal protest following foreign secretary David Cameron’s comments last week that Ukraine had the right to use British weapons to strike Russia.

Mr Casey was warned that “in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory with British weapons, any British military facilities and equipment on the territory of Ukraine and abroad”,  could be targeted, the ministry said, calling Lord Cameron’s remarks a serious escalation.

“The ambassador was called upon to reflect on the inevitable catastrophic consequences of such hostile steps by London and immediately refute the belligerent provocative statements of the head of the foreign office in the most decisive and unambiguous way,” the Russian Foreign ministry said.

It came on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration to a fifth term in office and as Msocow prepared to mark Victory Day on Thursday – its most important secular holiday, marking its defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

It is the first time Russia has publicly announced drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, although its strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises.

Tactical nuclear weapons include air bombs, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery munitions and are meant for use on a battlefield. They are less powerful than the strategic weapons – massive warheads that arm intercontinental ballistic missiles and are intended to obliterate cities.

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UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric expressed concern that various parties have been talking about issues regarding nuclear weapons recently.

“Current nuclear risks are at an alarmingly high level,” he said. “All actions that could lead to miscalculation, escalation with catastrophic consequences, must be avoided.”

Britain’s foreign office said Mr Casey had used the meeting to restate Britain’s support for Ukraine.