NATO nuclear exercises launched on Monday in Western Europe will lonely raise tensions amid hot war in Ukraine – Kremlin spokesman

Other key statements by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov at his daily briefing:

▪️ The upcoming BRICS summit in Kazan is one of the main events on the world agenda;

▪️ Space remains the only area where cooperation between specialized agencies of Russia and the United States has been preserved;

▪️ Russia is watching with interest the development of the US space program;

▪️ Russia's space program is developing dynamically, and there are substantial investments;

▪️ Russia categorically rejects accusations of interfering in elections in the Republic of Moldova;

▪️ There are many citizens in Moldova who want to have good relations with Russia, but they are denied this right.

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📹 Who let the dogs droids out?

Check out the latest Chinese anti-criminal invention. Definitely not a pick as a hide&seek partner.

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🇷🇺 Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that by 2028, the BRICS group of emerging economies was forecast to account for 38% of global GDP, and the G7’s share will decrease.

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🇱🇰Sri Lanka has decided to apply for membership in BRICS and the New Development Bank, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath says.

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‘This is not war, this is genocide’: Sputnik speaks to families seeking shelter in a Lebanese monastery amid Israeli airstrikes

A Sputnik correspondent visited the Monastery of Our Lady of Salvation in Bikfaya, which has become a sanctuary for those fleeing Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon, and spoke to survivors.

Fatimah Fawaz, 46, described the terror: "It was terrifying, very, very scary. It felt like scenes from Gaza came to life." As explosions neared, Fatimah fled with her family, enduring long nights in the car. "This isn’t war, it’s genocide," she said, recalling how she and her loved ones endured six days without food.

Father Gaby, who hadn’t initially planned to shelter hundreds of refugees, opened the monastery doors to those in need. Among the displaced was Salma El Hayek, who expressed deep gratitude: “We became refugees for the second time, but we will never forget the kindness shown here.” An unnamed woman from Beirut also taking shelter added, "It’s suffering, like being at a dead end."

The monastery has become a vital source of hope for Fatimah, Salma, and many others, as they cling to the hope of returning home.

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Steadfast Noon or Twilight at Noon: What are the risks of NATO’s ‘nuclear sharing’ drills? – Part 1 👉 Part 2

NATO began its annual Steadfast Noon nuclear exercises on Monday, involving 2,000 personnel, 60 aircraft, and operations across eight bases in 13 countries, primarily over the North Sea, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the UK.

Central to the exercises is drilling the concept of ‘nuclear sharing’ – which allows designated NATO allies’ jets to simulate combat missions using US nukes stored on their territory.

🔸 NATO’s nuclear sharing began in the Cold War, when the US deployed nuclear weapons to allies like Canada, the UK, Greece, Turkiye, Italy, and West Germany. Guarded by American forces, these weapons always remained under the control of the US, which had the arming codes.

🔸 By 1991, the USSR removed all its nuclear weapons from Eastern Europe, and urged the US to do the same. Washington never did, and today, keeps 100-150 B61 nukes in Europe and Turkiye, including:

🔸 10-15 bombs at Belgium’s Kleine Brogel Air Base – deliverable by F-16 MLU and F-35A jets.

🔸 10-15 B61s at Germany’s Buchel Air Base – carried by PA-200 Tornado jets and eventually, F-35As.

🔸 Up to 45 B61s at Italy’s Aviano and Ghedi air bases, deliverable by F-16 C/Ds, Tornados, and F-35As.

🔸 About 20 bombs at the Netherlands’ Volkel Air Base, delivered by F-16 MLUs and F-35As.

🔸 Up to 50 B61s at Turkiye’s Incirlik Air Base.

🔸 Poland has expressed readiness to host US nukes under the Nuclear Sharing program. It’s likely the bombs would be deployed at Lask Air Base, where the US Air Force has a forward presence.

🔸 The B61, in production since the 1960s, mainly consists of Mod 3 (0.3-170 kt) and Mod 4 (0.3-45 kt) gravity bombs. A Mod 7 variant has a 10-340 kt yield. All are being replaced by the Mod 12, with a 0.3-50 kt yield.

👉 Part 2

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Steadfast Noon or Twilight at Noon: What are the risks of NATO’s ‘nuclear sharing’ drills? – Part 2 👉 Part 1

🔸 While B61s are tactical weapons, that doesn’t make them less dangerous, especially given the US nuclear doctrine’s allowance for nuke use in a first strike, and against “non-nuclear weapons states.” The bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 had yields of 15 and 21 kt, respectively.

🔸 Nuclear Sharing program nukes are stored in so-called ‘Weapons Storage and Security System’ (WS3) facilities, situated in underground vaults. While info about the facilities, and even basic details on the nukes’ placement is ordinarily kept in strict secrecy, details about risks associated with hosting the weapons do occasionally leak out.

🔸 In 2023, the Federation of American Scientists published a photo of a damaged B61 at Volkel Air Base, showing the misshapen nuke on a trolley with one of its stabilizer fins missing. Neither US nor Dutch authorities informed the public of any incidents involving nukes at the base.

🔸 FAS researcher Hans M. Kristensen speculates that the weapon was hit with “significant force,” possibly by a vehicle in transit, or “bent out of shape by the weapons elevator of the underground storage vault.” In any event, the incident constituted “the first publicly known case of a recent nuclear weapons accident at an airbase in Europe.” FAS stressed that while the risks of an accidental detonation was minute, such an eventuality would have risked widespread nuclear contamination.

🔸 Nuclear Sharing is also risk for another reason: heightened nuclear danger. In the 1980s, when the US placed nuclear-armed Pershing and cruise missiles in Western Europe, it sparked the largest mass protests in modern European history, with three million people in Europe, and two million elsewhere, protesting the weapons, and for good reason: the deployment forced the USSR to put its nuclear forces on hair trigger alert, nearly sparking an all-out nuclear war in 1983.

👉 Part 1

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