NATO boss' talk of deploying more nuclear weapons is an 'escalation', Kremlin says

NATO is in talks to take more nuclear weapons out of storage and place them on standby, something Russia says is "nothing but another escalation of tension".

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) recently said Russia will end the war in Ukraine only if Ukraine agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Russia, demands Ukraine swiftly rejected as tantamount to surrender. The Russian government has also criticised comments recently made by NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg (left). Source: AAP / Olivier Hoslet / EPA / Sipa USA

The Kremlin said on Monday that North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg's remarks about talks on deploying more nuclear weapons were an escalation.

The bigger picture: NATO is in talks to deploy more nuclear weapons, taking them out of storage and placing them on standby, in the face of a growing threat from Russia and China, Stoltenberg told The Telegraph newspaper.

Russia says the United States and its European allies are pushing the world to the brink of nuclear confrontation by giving Ukraine billions of dollars worth of weapons, some of which are being used against Russian territory.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Stoltenberg's comments appeared to contradict the communique of the Ukraine Conference that said any threat or use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine context was inadmissible.

The key quote: "This is nothing but another escalation of tension" — Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

What else to know: Russia and the United States are by far the world's biggest nuclear powers, holding about 88 per cent of the world's nuclear weapons, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

The United States has about 100 non-strategic B61 nuclear weapons deployed in five European countries — Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands — according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The U.S. has another 100 such weapons within its borders.

Russia has about 1,558 non-strategic nuclear warheads, though arms control experts say it is very difficult to say just how many there are due to secrecy.

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