On Monday, the Kremlin stated that a remark made by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg stating that the NATO military alliance was holding talks on the decision to deploy more nuclear weapons was “an escalation of tension”.

Stoltenberg told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper that NATO members were in the process of consulting over nuclear weapons decisions. The decision was on whether or not to deploy more nuclear weapons. This would involve taking weapons out of storage and creating a “standby” to counter both the growing Russian and China threats. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin stated that Stoltenberg’s comments were contradictory to communications exchanged at a weekend conference. The conference held in Switzerland made it clear that any threat, or use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war was “inadmissable”. According to a response statement by Peskov, “This is nothing but another escalation of tension”. Stoltenberg responded, stating that Russia was purposefully trying to create confusion, as his comments referred to the modernization of NATO’s nuclear deterrent. NATO had also clarified Stoltenberg’s comments, ensuring there was no significant change to NATO’s nuclear posture.

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https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-says-nato-chiefs-nuclear-weapons-remarks-are-an-escalation-2024-06-17/