Russian President Vladimir Putin has put Russian nuclear deterrent forces on alert after the tensions with the West over Ukraine.
While addressing media, President Putin said that NATO has made “aggressive statements” accompanied by the West imposing hard-hitting financial and other sanctions against Russia, including the president himself.
He has ordered the Defence Minister of Russia and the chief of the military General Staff to put the nuclear deterrent forces in a “special regime of combat duty.”
Meanwhile, the statement released by the United State’s Ambassador to the United Nations that, “Mr Putin’s order is showing that the Russian leader is escalating conflict in a manner that is unacceptable.”
According to the sources, Putin is getting increasingly frustrated due to the slower-than-expected pace of the invasion as the Russian military have so far failed to capture the capital of Kyiv.
Earlier night, Russian military and tanks have entered into Kharkiv, triggering a fight on the streets for Ukraine’s second city.
The military had also blown up a natural gas pipeline close to the northeastern city during the nighttime, prompting warnings of an “environmental catastrophe” by Ukrainian authorities before their forces breached its perimeters.
While addressing media, Mr Putin said, “As you can see, not only do Western nations take unfriendly steps against our nation in the economic dimension- I mean the illegal sanctions that everyone knows about very well- but also the top officials of leading NATO nations allow themselves to make aggressive statements with regards to our nation.”
As sources said, today’s escalation comes as Belarus special forces are preparing to assault the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian intelligence got to know from within Belarus that “special ops” troops have been spotted loading up planes for a major attack.
As per one of the senior Ukrainian officials, “If it happens, it means that Belarus has openly joined Russia in its invasion of sovereign Ukraine.”
