Putin Says He Was Ready To Sound Nuclear Alert Over Crimea Conflict

Russian President Vladimir Putin wears special glasses as he visits a recearch facility in "Gorny" University in St. Petersburg on Monday, Jan. 26, 2015. In televised comments after a meeting with students in St. Pet... Russian President Vladimir Putin wears special glasses as he visits a recearch facility in "Gorny" University in St. Petersburg on Monday, Jan. 26, 2015. In televised comments after a meeting with students in St. Petersburg, President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine’s army was at fault for the increase in violence and accused it of using civilians as “cannon fodder” in the conflict. “(Ukraine’s army) is not even an army, it’s a foreign legion, in this case a foreign NATO legion,” Putin said. “They have totally different goals, connected to the geopolitical containment of Russia, which absolutely do not coincide with the national interests of the Ukrainian people.” (AP Photo/RIA Novosti Kremlin, Mikhail Klimentyev, Presidential Press Service) MORE LESS
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MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian military on Monday launched sweeping military maneuvers in the Arctic and other areas, a show of force ordered by President Vladimir Putin amid spiraling tensions with the West over Ukraine.

The five-day Arctic drills involving 38,000 servicemen, more than 50 surface ships and submarines and 110 aircraft are intended to check the readiness of Russia’s Northern Fleet and the military’s ability to deploy additional forces from central Russia.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said “the new challenges and military threats require further increase of the armed forces’ capabilities.”

As part of the exercise the military will check its ability to beef up its forces on the Arctic Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land archipelagos and protect the state borders on land, in the air and at sea, Shoigu said in televised remarks.

Other tasks will include the airlifting of special operations forces to distant locations and efforts to counter the enemy’s diversions.

The military elsewhere in Russia also launched drills. About 3,000 troops drilled on Sakhalin Island, the Kamchatka Peninsula and other areas in the far east.

In southern Siberia, the Russian air force launched maneuvers at the firing range in Buryatia, and in southwestern Russia, about 500 troops were involved in tactical drills on shooting ranges in the Stavropol region.

The war games come as Russia-West ties are strained over the Ukrainian crisis and the West is also boosting its military preparedness. The United States is planning to conduct joint exercises with forces from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania later this month.

Putin, speaking in a documentary broadcast by state television late Sunday, said that Russia was ready to bring its nuclear weapons into a state of alert during last year’s tensions over the Crimean Peninsula and the overthrow of Ukraine’s Moscow-friendly president.

Russian forces quickly took over Crimea following the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych, blocking Ukrainian troops at their bases and setting the stage for a hastily called referendum on secession. Russia then annexed Crimea on March 19, 2014.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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