Moscow Has Right to Place Nuclear Weapons in Crimea

[Hindustani78]

01.06.2015
Moscow May Deploy Nuclear Arms Anywhere in Russia, Including Crimea / Sputnik International

The Director of the Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms control at the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia retains its right to deploy nuclear weapons anywhere on its territory if necessary.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia retains its right to deploy if necessary nuclear weapons anywhere on its territory, including on the Crimean Peninsula, Director of the Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms control at the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Ulyanov said Monday.
“Russia obviously retains the right if needed to deploy its nuclear weapons anywhere on its national territory, including on the Crimean Peninsula,” Ulyanov said in an interview with RIA Novosti in regard to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin’s statement during a NATO ministerial meeting in mid-May in Antalya, Turkey.

Earlier the Russian Defense Ministry announced plans that during snap combat readiness exercises it would redeploy 10 Tu-22M3 (Flanker) long-range aircraft capable of delivering nuclear weapons; however, there was no mention of arming them with nuclear warheads. The United States expressed its concern of the possible deployment of nuclear arms in Crimea.

According to Klimkin, “the deployment of nuclear weapons in Crimea would be the most serious breach in Russia’s international commitments” in numerous agreements, including the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

“Any activity or even signals from Russia on the mere possibility of deploying nuclear weapons in Crimea will be considered the gravest breach in all international norms. In this case, the international community will need to react most decisively,” Klimkin said.

Russia’s Ulyanov said the same statement was made by Klimkin during another conference on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Arms.

“How is it that [Klimkin], in seeing Crimea as part of Ukrainian territory, even suggest that the deployment of Russian nuclear arms there would damage the non-nuclear status of Ukraine The idea is quite interesting in that it can be understood as an indirect attack on the United States, as well as on Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey, where US nuclear weapons are already deployed. Following the Ukrainian minister’s logic, this is a direct breach of non-nuclear status of these European nations. I won’t argue, but I will say that the situation in Crimea is of course different,” Ulyanov said.

The Crimean Peninsula was reunited with Russia after a referendum on March 16, 2014.

 

[Hindustani78]

Russia bolstering Crimean contingent, may deploy nuclear arms on peninsula – Ukrainian Defense Minister

Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak has claimed expansion of the Russian military presence in Crimea and possible deployment of nuclear weapons on the peninsula.

"The Russian Federation has been bolstering its military contingent in Crimea. The contingent has approximately 24,000 servicemen already... It is highly probable that strategic nuclear weapon delivery vehicles may be deployed on the peninsula. In fact, Russia has been forming a powerful contingent in Crimea for guaranteeing control over the occupied territory and defending its interests as regards Ukraine and other states," Poltorak said at a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Inter-Parliamentary Council in Kyiv on Monday.

Provided that the contingent continues to grow, Russia may practically double the number of its troops stationed in Crimea and increase the force to 43,000 men by 2017, the minister said.

Moscow has said once and again that it has the right to deploy troops and nuclear weapons in any region of the country, including Crimea.

 

[[Bregs]]

Russia is being forced to intervene militarily in ukraine by west and US