Latest news with #NuclearRisk
Russia Today
5 hours ago
- General
- Russia Today
Ukraine's strikes on Russian airfields risk escalation
The recent Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian airfields reportedly hosting nuclear-capable bombers sharply increase the risk of escalation, Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump's special envoy, has warned. On Sunday, Kiev launched a drone raid targeting airfields in five regions, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow. Officials in Kiev said that the attack was aimed at Russia's strategic aviation. Ukrainian media reports claimed that the airfields house Russian Tu-95 and Tu-22M strategic bombers, as well as an A-50 early warning and control plane. Russian officials said that the 'terrorist attack' was repelled with no casualties but that several aircraft caught fire. In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Kellogg suggested that the attack was upping the stakes in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. 'The risk levels are going way up,' he explained. 'When you attack an opponent's part of their national survival system, which is their nuclear triad… that means your risk level goes up because you don't know what the other side's going to do.' The envoy also noted that he was particularly concerned by reports – which were not confirmed by Moscow – that Ukraine also struck the Northern Fleet headquarters in Severomorsk, which would have meant that two of the three legs of Russia's nuclear triad were under attack. He added that when it comes to such kinds of attacks, 'it's not so much the damage you do on the triad itself… but it's the psychological impact you have.' Ukraine, according to the envoy, also wanted to show that it could 'raise the risk level to levels that are basically, to me, they've got to be unacceptable.' Earlier this week, the New York Times reported, citing sources, that Ukraine did not give advance notice to the US of the strikes, and that the two sides currently have no joint planning on operations inside Russian territory. NYT sources also believe that Moscow will mount 'a significant retaliation,' although specifics are yet unclear. Following the attacks, Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, warned that a response was 'inevitable.'
Arab News
3 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Pakistan raises alarm over risks to Asia-Pacific stability amid India tensions
ISLAMABAD: A top Pakistani general on Sunday raised alarmed over risks to Asia-Pacific stability in the absence of regional crisis management frameworks, amid prevailing tensions between Pakistan and India. Pakistan and India last month engaged in a worst standoff between them in decades that saw the neighbors attack each other with jets, missiles, drones and artillery, killing around 70 people on both sides before the United States brokered a ceasefire on May 10. The conflict, triggered by an attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir's Pahalgam town that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan, alarmed the world powers and raised fears that it could spiral into a full-blown war and bring the archfoes' nuclear arsenals into play. Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue security meeting in Singapore, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Pakistan's Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chairman, said the recent India-Pakistan conflict underscored how crisis management frameworks remained 'hostage to countries' belligerence.' 'The recent standoff amply underlines significance of maintaining open channels of communications to avert crises as and when they erupt. Post-Pahalgam [attack], the threshold of an escalatory war has come dangerously low, implying greater risk on both sides, just not in the disputed territory, but all of India and all of Pakistan,' he said. 'In future, given the Indian policies and polities' extremist mindset, absence of a crisis management mechanism may not give enough time to the global powers to intervene and effect cessation of hostilities.' Bitter rivals India and Pakistan have fought three wars, including two over the disputed region of Kashmir, since gaining independence from British rule in 1947. Before the conflict, both nations unleashed a raft of punitive measures against each other, with India suspending the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty that ensures water for 80 percent of Pakistani farms and Pakistan closing its airspace to Indian airlines. India has said the treaty would remain in abeyance. Gen Mirza said New Delhi's move to suspend the treaty is in 'total defiance of the international laws, since it is an existential threat for the people of Pakistan.' 'If there is any effort to stop, divert or delay Pakistan's share of water, as clearly spelt out by our National Security Committee, it could be considered as an act of war,' he added.
