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The military cited "provocative statements and threats against Russia by certain Western officials" as the reason for the drill.From the same source:
The French president has previously called to show that the EU is not a "vassal" of the USAlso related: Macron warns about Russian missiles in a defeated Ukraine
France must open a debate on building up a pan-European defense capability, to include rethinking its own nuclear potential, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.
Speaking to a group of young people at the European School in Strasbourg on Friday, Macron stressed that while France is already protected by NATO, it "must now go further" to ensure its security and "build a credible European defense."
He noted that guaranteeing that security "may mean deploying anti-missile shields" to be able to deter the use of nuclear weapons. "Being credible also means having long-range missiles that would deter the Russians," he added.
Numerous Western leaders have insisted on boosting defense capabilities amid the Ukraine conflict, citing fears that Russia could attack NATO within a few years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, has dismissed such speculation as "nonsense," pointing to the fact that the US, NATO's largest contributor, spends ten times more on defense than Moscow. He has also stated that current geopolitical tensions are largely due to NATO's decision to ignore Russian security interests.
Explaining his stance on nuclear weapons, Macron went on to say that while France would use its arsenal only if its vital interests were threatened, those interests also have a wider dimension. This means that French nuclear doctrine should contribute to the credibility of the EU's defense, he said.
"I am in favor of opening this debate, which must therefore include anti-missile defense, long-range weapon firing, nuclear weapons for those who have them or who have American nuclear weapons on their soil," the president stated.
For several years, Macron has also advocated creating a "true, European army" to be able to independently strengthen continental security. This month, he also warned that "our Europe today is mortal and it can die" while calling for a "strategic autonomy" for the EU, particularly in terms of military production. The bloc "must show that it is never a vassal of the United States," he said.
The idea of creating a joint EU army, however, has met strong pushback both in Brussels and in EU capitals. EU top diplomat Josep Borrell suggested last month that while the bloc should aspire to boost the military capabilities of its individual members, that does not mean it should create a common army.
Several EU states, including Denmark and Poland, have similarly signaled that they want their security guaranteed within the existing NATO framework.
In an interview with the French daily La Tribune on Saturday, Macron, who has famously refused to rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine, once again advocated a policy of "strategic ambiguity" towards Russia, arguing that the key idea behind such an approach is to project strength while "not giving too many details."2) In the slow escalation of the conflict in Ukraine what is the next "logical step"?
Describing Russia as "an adversary," the French president stressed that establishing "a priori limits" would be interpreted as weakness. "We must remove all visibility from it, because that is what creates the ability to deter," he argued.
The Steadfast Defender drills, featuring some 90,000 troops from all 32 NATO member states and 1,100 combat vehicles, started in late January and will end in May.Since several incidents in Europe and the US have previously occurred at the time of a drill, the nervousness in Russia is explainable. Moreover, Russia celebrates Victory Day (WWII victory over National Socialist Germany) on May 9th, which could be a great opportunity for disruption.
June 6 (Reuters) - Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that U.S.-built F-16 fighter jets can "accommodate" nuclear weapons and warned that supplying Kyiv with them will escalate the conflict further."4)
We must keep in mind that one of the modifications of the F-16 can 'accommodate' nuclear weapons," Lavrov said in a speech at a military base in Dushanbe in Tajikistan, according to a transcript on the ministry's website."If they do not understand this, then they are worthless as military strategists and planners."
White House spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday declined to discuss the nuclear capabilities of the F-16 fighters but noted that U.S. President Joe Biden has been consistent that he does not want to see the war escalate, certainly not into the nuclear realm.
Russia would consider foreign deployments of nuclear weapons in Poland a primary military target, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has warned.4) The Wiki on tactical nuclear weapons
Warsaw is in talks with Washington on potentially hosting nuclear arms as part of a NATO program. President Andrzej Duda reiterated Poland's willingness to host the weapons in an interview this week.
A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon (NSNW)[1] is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations, mostly with friendly forces in proximity and perhaps even on contested friendly territory.
[...]For comparison here is a conversion between the Richter Scale in terms of TNT with comments on what the larger numbers mean in terms of kilotons
The yield varies for a tactical nuclear weapon from a fraction of a kiloton to approximately 50 kilotons.[7] In comparison, a strategic nuclear weapon has a yield from 100 kilotons to over a megaton, with much larger warheads available.[7]
Richter Tons of TNT ExplosionThe above table describes the energy released, but since less energy is transferred to the ground by a hot exploding nuclear weapon than during an earthquake, the actual earthquake from a bomb that hits the earth should be less.
1 0.0005
2 0.0151
3 0.4769
4 15.0802
5 476.8791 This is half a kiloton of TNT
6 15.0802 * 103 This is 15 kilotons of TNT
6.5 84.8024 * 103 This is 85 kilotons of TNT
The United States has about 200 tactical nuclear gravity bombs with explosive yields adjustable between 0.3 and 170 kilotons. (The yield of the Hiroshima bomb was 15 kilotons.) The Pentagon deploys about 100 of those bombs, called the B61, in five European countries: Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium, and the Netherlands.Among the tactical nuclear are the Neutron bombs:
Technically speaking, every low-yield nuclear weapon is a radiation weapon, including non-enhanced variants. All nuclear weapons up to about 10 kilotons in yield have prompt neutron radiation[2] as their furthest-reaching lethal component. For standard weapons above about 10 kilotons of yield, the lethal blast and thermal effects radius begins to exceed the lethal ionizing radiation radius.[11][12][13] Enhanced radiation weapons also fall into this same yield range and simply enhance the intensity and range of the neutron dose for a given yield.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday arrived in France on a state visit hosted by Emmanuel Macron where the French leader will seek to push his counterpart on issues ranging from Ukraine to trade.Will France listen to the wisdom of the Chinese President or will it threaten to sanction China if it doesn't follow the path of the destructive West? It is instructive to see that the Chinese President after the visit to France only will visit Serbia and Hungary, both of which don't support the Western war on Russia. It is clear that China sees no point of going to Germany, the UK or the EU headquarters in Brussels.
Xi's arrival for the visit marking 60 years of diplomatic relations between France and China was the start of his first trip to Europe since 2019 which will also see him visit Serbia and Hungary.
But Xi's choice of France as the sole major European power to visit indicates the relative warmth in Sino-French relations since Macron made his own state visit to China in April 2023 and acknowledges the French leader's stature as an EU powerbroker.
The U.S. public should by now be realizing that instead of stopping genocide, U.S. institutional and media authority is actively stamping out cries to stop the mass murder being committed with U.S. complicity.Developments on university campuses and in Congress this week showed that the U.S. government's top priority is not protecting students or civilian lives in Gaza, but to protect Israel's ability to continue its unimpeded slaughter.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has condemned the latest remarks from French President Emmanuel Macron about the option of sending troops to Ukraine, and has warned such a move could ultimately spark an all-out nuclear war. The diplomat strongly condemned the idea, saying that the French leader's comments themselves have contributed to escalating the situation.
Macron doubled down on previous statements about the prospect of deploying French troops to Ukraine. The president said his original remarks, made earlier this year, were a "strategic wake-up call for my counterparts." He suggested that Paris could deploy troops "if the Russians were to break through the front lines" and a request for help came from Kiev.
Hungary's top diplomat also criticized Macron's idea that France's nuclear weapons could become a part of a credible European defense."In peacetime it would be different, but in wartime such statements can be misinterpreted and have serious consequences. It will be over for everyone."Speaking to Hungarian broadcaster M1 earlier in the day, the minister also rejected NATO's proposed €100 billion ($107 billion) five-year plan for a war chest to prop up Ukraine, floated by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, describing it as "madness.""In the coming weeks during negotiations we will fight for Hungary's right to stay away from this madness, from collecting these 100 billion and siphoning them out of Europe."Hungary has been consistently opposed to the growing involvement of both the US-led NATO and the EU in the Ukrainian conflict, refusing to support Kiev militarily, including through sending weaponry or training Ukrainian troops.
"The coalition's actions against Russia are being practiced using all the instruments, including hybrid and conventional weapons. We have to admit that NATO is seriously preparing for a 'potential conflict' with us."The diplomat was commenting on accusations made by NATO earlier this week that Russia was allegedly carrying out "hybrid activities" on the member countries' soil, which they insist constitute a threat to their security. These actions include "sabotage, acts of violence, cyber and electronic interference, disinformation campaigns, and other hybrid operations," the bloc claimed in a statement on Thursday.
Comment:
See also Putin orders tactical nuclear weapons drills which in the comments has notes about tactical nuclear weapons.
From the same source
6 May, 2024 11:06 Western leaders are 'infantile morons' - Medvedev