International Courant
Russian Ministry of Protection
A ballistic missile at a nuclear base in Russia
On the day of Ukraine’s huge invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Anton says the nuclear weapons base the place he served was placed on full fight alert.
“Earlier than that we solely had workout routines. However on the day the warfare began, the weapons had been totally in place,” says the previous Russian nuclear power officer. “We had been able to launch forces into the ocean and air and, in concept, launch a nuclear assault.”
I met Anton at a secret location outdoors Russia. For its personal safety, the BBC doesn’t need to reveal the place. We additionally modified his title and do not present his face.
Anton was an officer at a top-secret nuclear weapons facility in Russia.
He has proven us paperwork confirming his unit, rank and base.
The BBC is unable to independently confirm all of the occasions he described, though they had been in keeping with Russian statements on the time.
The previous officer (L) spoke to the BBC at a secret location – his face has been blurred to hide his identification
Three days after troops flooded Ukraine’s borders, Vladimir Putin introduced that Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces had been eradicated. ordered to a “particular type of fight responsibility”.
Anton says a fight alert was in impact on the primary day of the warfare and claims his unit was “locked inside the bottom.”
“All we had was Russian state tv,” says the previous officer. “I did not actually know what all of it meant. I mechanically carried out my duties. We did not battle the warfare, we simply guarded the nuclear weapons.”
The state of alarm was lifted after two to a few weeks, he added.
Anton’s testimony gives perception into the top-secret internal workings of Russia’s nuclear forces. This can be very uncommon for troopers to speak to journalists.
“There’s a very strict choice course of there. Everyone seems to be knowledgeable soldier, no conscripts,” he explains.
“There are fixed checks and lie detector assessments for everybody. The pay is way greater and the troops should not despatched to warfare. They’re there to repel or perform a nuclear assault.”
The previous officer says life was tightly managed.
“It was my accountability to make sure that the troopers below me didn’t take telephones into the nuclear base,” he explains.
“It’s a closed society, there are not any strangers. In order for you your mother and father to go to, you should submit a request to the FSB safety service three months upfront.”
Russian Ministry of Protection
Troopers who guard a patrol at a nuclear base are specifically educated
Anton was a part of the bottom’s safety unit, a speedy response power that guarded the nuclear weapons.
“We had coaching workout routines on a regular basis. Our response time was two minutes,” he says with a touch of delight.
Russia has about 4,380 operational nuclear warheads, in accordance with the Federation of American Scientists, however only one,700 are “deployed” or prepared to be used. All NATO member states collectively have a comparable quantity.
There are additionally considerations about whether or not Putin may select to deploy ‘non-strategic’, usually tactical, nuclear weapons. These are smaller rockets that usually don’t trigger widespread fallout.
Its use would nonetheless result in a harmful escalation of the warfare.
The Kremlin has executed every little thing it will possibly to check the nerves of the West.
Simply final week, Putin endorsed adjustments to nuclear doctrine – the official guidelines that dictate how and when Russia can launch nuclear weapons.
The doctrine now says that Russia can launch if it faces a “huge assault” of typical missiles by a non-nuclear state, however “with the participation or assist of a nuclear state.”
Russian officers say the up to date doctrine “successfully eliminates” the potential for battlefield defeat.
However is Russia’s nuclear arsenal totally useful?
Some Western consultants have prompt that the weapons are largely Soviet-era and should not even work.
The previous nuclear forces officer dismissed that view as a “very simplified view of so-called consultants.”
“There could also be some outdated kinds of weapons in some areas, however the nation has an enormous nuclear arsenal, an enormous variety of nuclear warheads, together with fixed fight patrols on land, sea and within the air.”
Russia’s nuclear weapons had been totally operational and prepared for battle, he claimed. “The work to keep up nuclear weapons is ongoing, it by no means stops, not even for a minute.”
Shortly after the full-scale warfare started, Anton stated he was given what he describes as a “legal order”: to provide lectures to his troops utilizing very particular written directives.
“They stated that Ukrainian residents are fighters and should be destroyed!” he exclaims. “That may be a pink line for me: it’s a warfare crime. I stated I cannot unfold this propaganda.”
Senior officers reprimanded Anton by transferring him to an everyday assault brigade in one other a part of the nation. He was informed he can be despatched to warfare.
These models are sometimes despatched into battle as a “first wave” and quite a lot of Russian deserters have informed the BBC that “troublemakers” who object to the warfare have been used as “cannon fodder”.
The Russian embassy in London didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Earlier than he may very well be despatched to the entrance traces, Anton signed a press release refusing to take part within the warfare and a legal case was opened in opposition to him. He confirmed us paperwork confirming his switch to the assault brigade and particulars of the legal case.
He then determined to flee the nation with the assistance of a volunteer group for deserters.
“If I had run away from the nuclear energy base, the native FSB safety service would have responded decisively and I most likely wouldn’t have been in a position to depart the nation,” he stated.
However he believes the safety clearance system on the highest degree failed as a result of he was transferred to an everyday assault brigade.
Anton stated he needed to let the world know that many Russian troopers had been in opposition to the warfare.
The volunteer group that helps deserters, “Idite Lesom” (‘Go by the Forest’, in English, or ‘Get Misplaced’) informed the BBC that the variety of deserters in search of assist has risen to 350 per thirty days.
The dangers for these fleeing are additionally rising. Not less than one deserter has been killed after fleeing overseas, and there have been a number of instances of males being forcibly returned to Russia and tried.
Though Anton has left Russia, he says safety companies are nonetheless on the lookout for him there: “I’m taking precautions right here, working off the books and never showing in any official system.”
He says he now not talks to his buddies on the nuclear base as a result of he might endanger them: “They must take lie detector assessments, and any contact with me might result in a legal case.”
However he has no illusions concerning the threat he himself runs by serving to different troopers flee.
“I perceive that the extra I try this, the extra probably they’re to attempt to kill me.”
