Putin orders top military officials to have all types of nuclear weapons ready

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin, in response to aggressive statements from Western officials, ordered the Ministry of Defense to put the Russian deterrence forces on special combat duty, TASS reports.

At the meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, Putin noted that Western officials not only took unfriendly actions against Moscow in the economic sphere, but also made a number of aggressive statements.

Putin also said that the sanctions that the Western countries imposed against Moscow were illegitimate.

“Top officials of NATO's leading countries also allow aggressive statements against our country, therefore I order the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff to put the deterrence forces of the Russian army on a special mode of combat duty,” Putin said as quoted by TASS.

Earlier, Britain's Defence Secretary Lizz Truss stated:

“If we don’t stop Putin in Ukraine we are going to see others under threat – the Baltics, Poland, Moldova, and it could end up in a conflict with Nato. We do not want to go there. That is why it is so important we make the sacrifices now." 

According to the Defense Ministry, the strategic deterrence forces (SDF) make the backbone of the combat power of the Russian Armed Forces and are designed to deter aggression against Russia and its allies. The SDF can also be used to defeat the aggressor, including in a war with the use of nuclear weapons.

The SDF include the Strategic Offensive Forces and the Strategic Defensive Forces.

• The Strategic Offensive Forces, which include the Strategic Missile Forces, form the basis of the Strategic Nuclear Forces, armed with intercontinental missiles and aviation systems, as well as long-range precision weapons.
• The Strategic Offensive Forces also include strategic non-nuclear forces as dual-purpose forces - formations and units of strategic and long-range bombers of the Air Force, as well as submarines, surface ships and naval missile-carrying aircraft of the Navy with conventional long-range precision weapons. 
• The Strategic Defensive Forces are based on the combat-ready forces and means of the Aerospace Defense Forces, which include a missile attack warning system, a space control system, anti-missile defense and anti-space defense, and air defense systems.