NUCLEAR WEAPONSRumors Grow of Russia's Nuclear Weapons Moves

Published 4 October 2022

European news outlets have been reporting that in the past twenty-four hours the Russian military has been moving components related to a nuclear weapon launch closer to the Russia-Ukraine border. NATO intelligence officials have said that a Russian submarine carrying nuclear-armed underwater drones has “disappeared” from its port in north Russia.

European news outlets have been reporting that in the past twenty-four hours the Russian military has been moving components related to a nuclear weapon launch closer to the Russia-Ukraine border. The pro-Russian military blog Rybar published a video on Telegram on Sunday which shows a freight train, accompanied by military armored vehicles, which is said to belong to the 12th. Main directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The 12th Directorate is in charge of maintaining Russia’s nuclear weapons.

The Italian daily La Repubblicareported Monday that NATO’s High Command has circulated an intelligence brief to the organization’s members alerting them to the movement of the train. The intelligence brief also noted that the Russian nuclear submarine K-329 Belgorod, usually docked at a military port near Murmansk in northern Russia, “has disappeared.” The briefing said that the submarine was probably on its way to the northern island of Novaya Zemlya to conduct tests of its nuclear-armed Poseidon underwater drones.

The recent series of military defeats by Russian forces in Ukraine have caused military analysts in the West to worry that Russia was more likely to contemplate the use of nuclear weapins to stave off defeat on the battlefield.

Some military analysts said that the concerns over the freight train were overblown. They noted that nuclear weapons are typically transported in specially built trucks. The armored vehicles and trucks that Rybar shows are not suitable for transporting of nuclear warheads.

The case of the Belgorod is different. It is not uncommon for the submarine, which was only put into service in July, to “disappear” by diving into the depths. Since its launch in the summer, the submarine made several trips north to test its underwater drones.

The Poseidon was hailed by President Vladimir Putin four years ago as a “miracle weapon.” In May, Russian state TV showed a test of the Poseidon in the eastern Atlantic, saying that in a “real war,” a swarm of nuclear-armed Poseidon drones will be used to destroy the United Kingdom.

The Russian military said that the Poseidon can carry a warhead of several megatons, and that an explosion off the British coast would trigger a tsunami-like tidal wave several hundred meters high which would  bury everything in its way.

NATO did not officially comment on the train or submarine on Tuesday. A spokesman for the alliance told the ANSA news agency about the Belgorod only: “We do not comment on supposed information leaks or intelligence details.”

Fox News, citing an American government official who was not named, reported that Putin’s recent nuclear threats have, so far, not been accompanied by any unusual activities related to the Moscow nuclear arsenal.