Stoltenberg Calls NATO Will Not Be Nuclearly MITized

JAKARTA - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will closely monitor Russia's routine nuclear exercises, stressing no fear of continuing to provide support to Ukraine, despite Moscow's covert nuclear threat.

"We will not be intimidated," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters after a two-day meeting of the alliance's defense ministers.

"Russian nuclear rhetoric is dangerous, reckless and they know, if they use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, it will have severe consequences," he said.

The meeting was the first major NATO meeting since Moscow announced it would annex several Ukrainian territories, initiate partial mobilization and issue a covert nuclear threat, a move NATO has classified as a clear war escalation that began when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

The attack on the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea also escalated tensions as Europe developed an energy crisis after Moscow cut off most of its gas supply.

It is known that Russia's military setbacks in Ukraine have raised concerns President Vladimir Putin may follow up on threats to use nuclear weapons.

Stoltenberg said NATO would closely monitor Russia's annual nuclear exercises, as it has been done for decades. And stay alert, "at best not given the hidden nuclear threat and the dangerous rhetoric we have seen from the Russian side".

The remarks appeared to refer to Russia's annual "Grom" exercise which usually takes place at the end of October, in which Russia tested its nuclear-capable bombers, submarines, and missiles.

NATO plans to hold its own annual nuclear preparedness exercise dubbed the "Steadfast Noon" next week, where NATO air force is training how to use a European-based US nuclear bomb with training flights, without direct weapons.

On Wednesday, a senior NATO official said Russia's nuclear strike in Ukraine "will almost certainly draw physical responses from many allies, and potentially from NATO itself".

Stoltenberg warned Moscow of "severe consequences" if it used any kind of nuclear weapons against Ukraine, but declined to provide details on NATO's potential response.

NATO Secretary-General said nuclear attacks would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict and signal a very important line crossing.

"Even the use of smaller nuclear weapons will be very serious and fundamentally change the nature of war in Ukraine," he stressed.