ISW names purpose of nuclear exercises in russia

Russian exercises with the use of nuclear weapons are intended to intimidate Western politicians and force them to voluntarily take measures beneficial to the aggressor.

This was stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The Kremlin continues to threaten nuclear weapons as part of a reflexive control campaign aimed at influencing Western policymakers. This is indicated by the exercises of the Southern Military District with the use of nuclear weapons, which began recently.

One of the pro-Kremlin bloggers directly linked these exercises with attempts to influence decision-making in the West, in particular, with recent discussions regarding restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western weapons to strike military targets on russian territory.

This supports ISW's assessment that russia's tactical nuclear weapons tests are part of the Kremlin's campaign of reflexive control. An aggressor often uses nuclear saber-rattling to influence Western politicians into surrender.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on May 6, the Ministry of Defense of the russian federation announced the holding of military exercises on the preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons.

Andrii Yusov, a representative of the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said that the department is collecting information about the nuclear exercises announced by the russian federation.

Meanwhile, the European Union commented on the plans of the russian federation to conduct training of nuclear forces.