Russia: US plan to use ‘low-yield’ nukes is ‘confrontational’
The Russian government reacted with “alarm” Saturday to a Trump administration plan to allow the use of “low-yield” nuclear weapons against non-nuclear attacks.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said a newly released Pentagon document on US nuclear policy is “confrontational.”
“We, of course, will have to take into account the approach enacted now in Washington and to take the needed measures to secure our own safety,” the ministry said.
The Russians were responding to the Pentagon’s Nuclear Posture Review, a document released Friday that outlined an expansion of the US nuclear arsenal in the face of Russia’s growing number of tactical nuclear weapons and a shift in the rules regarding their use.
The US will consider using such weapons to defend against “significant non- nuclear strategic attacks” on civilians or infrastructure — but only in “extreme circumstances.”
The Trump administration said the new policy would deter Russia from deploying its own low-yield nukes, which are about as powerful as the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima in 1945.