NATO’s secretive Nuclear Planning Group has met as the alliance presses ahead with plans to hold a nuclear exercise next week despite tensions over Russia's war on Ukraine.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, right, and U.S. Secretary for Defense Lloyd J. Austin III participate in a media conference during a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. NATO defense ministers meet in Brussels Thursday, aiming to help bolster Ukraine's aerial defenses, after a widespread Russian assault across the country early this week.
But additional uncertainty comes from the fact that Russia is also due to hold its own nuclear exercises soon, possibly at the same time as NATO or just after, according to NATO diplomats. That could complicate the 30-country military organization’s reading of the war and of Moscow's intentions. NATO’s exercise, dubbed “Steadfast Noon,” is held around the same time every year and runs for about one week. It involves fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear warheads, but doesn't involve any live bombs. Conventional jets, and surveillance and refueling aircraft also routinely take part.
With the Russian army retreating under the blows of Ukrainian forces armed with Western weapons, Putin raised the stakes by annexing four Ukrainian regions and declaring a partial mobilization of up to 300,000 reservists to buttress the crumbling front line.