Russia cannot prepare covertly even for simulated nuke tests: expert on Russia’s military drills

He said this on Espreso TV.

"I propose to start with some strange points about how the Russians conduct exercises to practice the use of tactical nuclear weapons. There is no data on how they should actually be conducted, that is, there is no established algorithm with a scenario for such exercises. Normally, the use of nuclear weapons, whether strategic or tactical, is the responsibility of a special department within the General Staff, but for some reason the Russian Defense Ministry is in charge of this on behalf of their dictator Putin. So far, it looks like a political demonstration, a kind of revenge that the whole world decided to ignore Putin's inauguration," Ivan Kyrychevskyi said.

According to him, in practice, tactical and strategic nuclear weapons differ in delivery means depending on their range and power.

"If the Russians are really talking only about tactical nuclear weapons, then most likely they are talking about warheads for Iskander missiles with a range of 500 km and, possibly, tactical nuclear bombs. But there is a nuance that there may be warheads for medium-range Iskanders, such as the cruise missile Iskander-K, which is more likely to be a strategic nuclear weapon. Also, the missiles that they use for bombers, such as the Kh-22, Kh-101, Kh-55, but these are also strategic nuclear weapons. Therefore, it is difficult to predict in advance to what degree of madness they can go with their nuclear blackmail. However, the Russians will not be able to covertly prepare even for simulated nuclear weapons testing, even if they think of attaching a nuclear warhead to some of the missiles that will fly to our territory," the analyst commented.

Kyrychevskyi explained that even if the Russians did deliver a nuclear warhead, Ukraine would be able to intercept, and it would not work as Russia intended.

"To put a nuclear warhead on an Iskander, the Russians need to unscrew a conventional warhead from the Iskander, and to put a nuclear warhead, they need special machines that are very visible from space. There must be a special convoy. Even if they did find some underground hangar, it would still be noticeable that the Russians brought a whole convoy of vehicles with special "booths" somewhere. It would be very clear on the satellite. They can imitate that these vehicles are carrying something for nuclear warheads, just to scare people, but without lifting the warheads themselves, because they need to be transported in a special mode, because, for example, such a warhead can explode ahead of time, and on the territory of the Russian Federation, and, of course, no one will object to this," the military expert emphasized.

• On May 7, the Russian Defense Ministry announced military exercises that will test the use of tactical nuclear weapons. The order was given by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.