By doing so, Russia is honoring its obligations under defense treaties to notify the United States of an intercontinental ballistic missile or ballistic missile test from a submarine, he said.
“This is an annual routine exercise for the Russians,” department spokesman Ned Price told reporters, stressing that “these announcements help avoid surprises and reduce the risk of misinterpretation.”
In rare exchanges, the defense ministers of the two countries spoke twice in the past week, he added.
A suspected “dirty bomb”.
US President Joe Biden warned on Tuesday that Russia’s use of nuclear weapons would be a “huge mistake”, as Moscow says Ukraine is developing a “dirty bomb”, a claim denied by Kyiv and the West.
Moscow made the allegations for the first time in phone conversations between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his American, French, British and Turkish counterparts on Sunday, referring to possible provocations by Ukraine with a ‘dirty bomb’.
A US diplomatic spokesman reiterated on Tuesday that the US had no information indicating that Russia was preparing to use a nuclear weapon.
But, he noted, “this worries us because Russia has a habit of blaming others for preparing itself.”
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