Russia has vowed to respond should the U.S. station nuclear weapons in Britain.
The warning was issued by Gennady Gatilov, Moscow's permanent representative to the U.N., on the state TV channel Russia-24, news agency RIA Novosti reported on Monday.
He said Moscow was monitoring Washington's alleged plans to deploy its nuclear weapons in Britain to counter a growing threat from Russia, per British newspaper The Telegraph.
"We are talking, perhaps, about the reactivation of an air base with American nuclear weapons in Great Britain," Gatilov said. "There is also talk about the possibility of sending nuclear weapons to the Baltic states, to Poland. All this creates a tense situation. We are monitoring how developments are going in this direction. Of course, if this is so, Russia will be forced to react to this accordingly."
His remarks come days after The Telegraph reported, citing Pentagon documents, that the U.S. plans to place nuclear weapons—some three times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb—at a Royal Air Force station 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of London.
Nuclear missiles were previously housed by the U.S. at RAF Lakenheath, which is operated by the U.S. Air Force, but they were removed in 2008 as the threat from Russia had diminished.
The Pentagon told Newsweek in a statement that "it is U.S. policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence or absence of nuclear weapons at any general or specific location."
"The United States routinely upgrades its military facilities in Allied nations. Unclassified administrative budget documents often accompany such activities. These documents are not predictive of, nor are they intended to disclose any specific posture or basing details," the department added.
The U.K.'s Ministry of Defence said of the reports: "It remains a longstanding U.K. and NATO policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location."
The news that such weapons could be deployed to the U.K. comes after NATO officials warned member states that the alliance may eventually have to go to war against Russia.
In January, Admiral Rob Bauer, Chair of the NATO Military Committee, warned that the alliance could be at war with Russia within 20 years, and many civilians would therefore be need to be mobilized to fight.
The U.K. Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Patrick Sanders, called on the government last month to "mobilize the nation" should a war with Russia be declared.
When similar reports circulated last fall about the potential deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons to the U.K., Russia warned it would treat any such move as an "escalation."
"If this happens, it will be treated by us as an escalation, which will lead to the exact opposite of achieving the pressing task of removing all U.S. nuclear weapons from Europe," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at the time, state-run news agency Tass reported.
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Update 2/6/24, 7:20 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include a statement from the Pentagon.
Update 2/5/24, 9:15 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
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