Global Eyes

Here's everything you need to know about the world this week to be a well-informed person.

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It’s a public holiday in the UK today so John’s not free to record the Elephant Cage. In its place, here’s an old-fashioned world news roundup.

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UKRAINE AND RUSSIA

Putin orders tactical nuclear weapon drills to deter the West:

Russia said on Monday it would practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what the Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the United States. … “During the exercise, a set of measures will be carried out to practice the issues of preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons,” the [defense] ministry said. Missile forces in the Southern Military District, aviation and the navy will take part, the defense ministry said. The exercise is aimed at ensuring Russia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty “in response to provocative statements and threats by certain Western officials against the Russian Federation,” it said.

“We do not see anything new here,” said Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence. “Nuclear blackmail is a constant practise of Putin’s regime.” The defense ministry, run by long-term Putin ally Sergei Shoigu, did not say which specific Western officials it was referring to in its statement. The Kremlin said that it was in response to remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron, British officials, and a representative of the US Senate. …

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Western statements about sending NATO soldiers to Ukraine amounted to “a completely new round of escalation of tension—it is unprecedented, and of course it requires special attention and special measures.”

For context:

• Russian nuclear intimidation: How Russia uses nuclear threats to shape Western responses to aggression.

• Assessing the evolving Russian nuclear threat

• Why is Putin again threatening a nuclear war? And just as importantly, is the West willing to call his bluff?

• Russian nuclear threats—a cry for attention, not Armageddon’s dawn.

• The ISW argues Russia wouldn’t be capable of it:

Russia threatened to strike British military installations and equipment both “inside and beyond” Ukraine if British weapons are used by Kyiv to attack its territory.