Washington has relaxed global worries of nuclear threat, saying the US has no intention of using chemical weapons under any circumstance, even if Russia uses such in Ukraine.
Speaking with journalists aboard Air Force One on Friday, White House National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan said Moscow would have itself to blame though, should it decide to resort to chemical warfare over Ukraine, adding that alliance leaders, however, resolved to not go easy on such brazen act of criminality.
“There will be a severe price if Russia uses chemical weapons. And I won’t go beyond that other than to say the United States has no intention of using chemical weapons, period, under any circumstance,” Sullivan assured.
Sullivan said there was now a “convergence” between Western leaders on what measures to take in case Russia uses chemical weapons and that the White House had set up a working group on the issue.
“We have made considerable efforts to put ourselves in a position to respond effectively,” he said, shortly before a plane carrying US President Joe Biden landed in Poland – around 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the border with Ukraine.
Earlier on Friday, the Kremlin issued a statement accusing Washington of ‘’seeking to divert attention from his country’s chemical and biological weapons programme’’ to further stimulate the ravaging scandal and bile against Moscow’s ‘military operations’ in Ukraine.
Press Secretary and Spokesman for the Russian President, Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov was quoted saying, “We see this as an attempt to divert attention to some kind of ephemeral, allegedly existing threat against the backdrop of a scandal that is flaring up in the world involving chemical and biological weapons programmes that the United States has been carrying out in various countries, including Ukraine’’.
“There are many people in the world who are worried about what the Americans were doing, what we still don’t know and what could have happened because of all this research and what could potentially happen in the future,” Peskov said Friday.
The Russian defence ministry equally accused Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, of funding biological weapons labs in Ukraine through his investment fund Rosemont Seneca.
Based on these revelations, the Kremlin vowed to call to question such impunity.
“Of course, we will demand explanations,” Peskov said, adding that ‘’China also had questions’’.
– No-to ‘security vacuum’ in the Arctic –
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday during a visit to the Bardufoss base in Northern Norway, where the alliance was conducting large-scale military exercises, dubbed Cold Response, that the alliance would not afford a security vacuum in the High North, as it could ‘’fuel Russian ambitions, expose NATO and risk miscalculation and misunderstandings”.
Stoltenberg described operation Cold Response as ‘’an important exercise, not least, in light of the meaningless and senseless Russian attack on Ukraine’’, whilst lampooning China’s perceived vested interest in the region.
Moscow had increased military activity in the Arctic in recent years, modernising its existing bases and building new ones in a clear sign it intends to be a dominant player in the coveted region.
Russia’s Kola Peninsula, which borders Arctic Norway, is home to the powerful Northern Fleet, with its huge concentration of nuclear weapons and numerous military installations.
Justifying NATO’s military presence in the area, Stoltenberg said, “For all these reasons the High North is an area of critical importance for all Allies. This is why NATO has increased its military presence in the North’’.
This month’s Cold Response exercise in Norway is designed to test the ability of NATO members – and partners Sweden and Finland – to come to the aid of another member state in difficult climate conditions.
AFP reports that some 30,000 soldiers are taking part in the air, sea and land exercises, the biggest manoeuvres Norway has organised since the end of the Cold War.
Planned long in advance, the exercise has taken on added significance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We regret, of course, that Russia declined to observe that exercise, but we regret even more that Russia never invites us to take part in mandatory observation and inspection of their exercises,” he remarked.
The NATO chief noted that Putin’s purported military operation against the republic of Ukraine was initially a charade ‘’disguised as an exercise… and then suddenly exercise turned into a full-fledged war”.
AFP
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