International Glance
Russia on Tuesday announced it has started tactical nuclear weapons exercises near Ukraine, as Moscow again accused the West of being "provocative."
The Kremlin's Southern Military District troops "are practicing combat training tasks of obtaining special ammunition for the Iskander operational-tactical missile system, equipping launch vehicles with them and covertly advancing to the designated position area in preparation for missile launches," Russia's defense ministry said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made veiled nuclear threats toward the West for years, since he began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, leaving tens of thousands of people dead, and towns and cities in ruins. Western allies have supported Ukraine with military equipment to help Kyiv fend off Putin's aggression.
U.S. military assistance, another $60 billion of which was passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in April, is arriving as Ukraine faces a Russian offensive that could determine the "character" of the war, Can Kasapoğlu, a senior and political- military affairs expert at the Hudson Institute, told ABC News.
