The United States has reiterated its commitment to defend “every centimeter” of NATO territory as the North Atlantic alliance prepares for its annual nuclear drills, Reuters reports.

“We are committed to defending every inch of NATO territory if and when it comes to that,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers on Thursday. his nuclear planning group.

NATO’s website states that NATO’s nuclear policy “is under constant review and changes in light of new developments.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin again threatened to use nuclear weapons in his country’s arsenal, both in his speech announcing the partial mobilization decree on September 21 and in his speech announcing the annexation of occupied Ukrainian territories late last month.

On Thursday morning, Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Oleksandr Venediktov threatened that Ukraine’s accession to NATO could lead to the third world war.

Ukraine officially submitted a request for accelerated accession to the Alliance on September 30, immediately after Vladimir Putin officially formalized the annexation of its territories, a rather symbolic move by the government in Kyiv in a context where the country’s accession to NATO is almost impossible while it remains at war.

But a senior NATO official said late Wednesday that a Russian nuclear strike on Ukraine would “almost certainly trigger a physical response” from many allies and possibly even the Alliance.

Jake Sullivan, US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, warned last month that the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine would have “catastrophic consequences” for Moscow, without elaborating on Washington’s possible response.

NATO nuclear exercises

The officials’ comments came after NATO announced that its annual nuclear training exercise, called Enduring Noon, would go ahead as planned next week, which involves practicing the use of US nuclear bombs in Europe with training flights but without armed warheads.

Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance’s secretary general, said on Tuesday that canceling the drills because of the war in Ukraine would send “a very wrong signal”.

Representatives of nearly 50 countries gathered at NATO headquarters on Wednesday to pledge to continue arming Ukraine this winter and beyond, promising help, including new air defense systems.

Lloyd Austin said Thursday that the United States’ support is open-ended. “We will continue our efforts to support Ukraine as long as necessary,” he said together with Jens Stoltenberg.

Stoltenberg welcomed the vote at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday night that condemned Russia’s illegal annexation of occupied Ukrainian territories, stressing that it shows that “we must stand up for rules based on the international order, on our core values.”

The allies are also due to discuss ways to improve the protection of critical infrastructure after Thursday’s apparent attack on the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.

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