Putin alerts Russian nukes amid rifts with the West 

President Vladimir Putin ordered his military’s nuclear deterrent forces to be on alert as international tensions over Russia’s four-day-old invasion of Ukraine spiraled. 

Speaking at a meeting with his top officials, Putin asserted on Sunday that leading NATO powers had made “aggressive statements” along with the West imposing hard-hitting financial sanctions against Russia, including the president himself. International tensions are already soaring over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Putin’s order will cause further alarm.

Moscow has the world’s second-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and a huge cache of ballistic missiles which form the backbone of the country’s deterrence forces. 

“I order the defence minister and the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces to put the deterrence forces of the Russian army into a special mode of combat service,” Putin said.

“You see that Western countries are not only unfriendly to our country in the economic sphere – I mean illegitimate sanctions,” he added, in a televised address. 

The Russian president on Thursday ordered the invasion of Ukraine, sending shockwaves around the world. Russian ground forces have pressed into Ukraine from the north, east and south but have encountered fierce resistance from Ukrainian troops, the intensity of which has likely surprised Moscow, according to Western sources. Ukrainian authorities describe some Russian troops as demoralised and drained, claiming that dozens have surrendered. 

Putin had promised a strong reaction to any Western power that attempted to stand in his way in Ukraine. In a speech announcing his offensive on Thursday, he warned that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action “will lead you to such consequences that you have never faced in your history.”