WASHINGTON (AFP) – U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines in an extraordinary escalation of what had been an online war of words with a Russian official over Ukraine and tariffs.
Trump and Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, have been sparring on social media for days.
Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform abruptly took that spat into the very real -- and rarely publicized -- sphere of nuclear forces.
Trump did not say in his post whether he meant nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines. But in an interview with Newsmax that aired Friday night, Trump said the submarines were “closer to Russia.”
Trump’s remarks came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had started mass producing its hypersonic nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile, and could deploy them to Belarus, a close Russian ally neighboring Ukraine, by year-end.
The nuclear saber-rattling came against the backdrop of a deadline set by Trump for the end of next week for Russia to take steps to ending the Ukraine war or face unspecified new sanctions.
Despite the pressure from Washington, Russia’s onslaught against its pro-Western neighbor continues to unfold at full bore.
Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said Friday that he wants peace but that his demands for ending the nearly three-and-a-half year war were “unchanged”.
Those demands include that Ukraine abandon territory and end ambitions to join NATO.
Putin, speaking alongside Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, said Belarusian and Russian specialists “have chosen a place for future positions” of the Oreshnik missiles.
The United States and Russia control the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weaponry, and Washington keeps nuclear-armed submarines on permanent patrol as part of its so-called nuclear triad of land, sea and air-launched weapons.
Trump told Newsmax that Medvedev’s “nuclear” reference prompted him to reposition U.S. nuclear submarines.
Medvedev had criticized Trump on his Telegram account Thursday and alluded to the “fabled ‘Dead Hand’” -- a reference to a highly secret automated system put in place during the Cold War to control the country’s nuclear weapons.
This came after Trump had lashed out at what he called the “dead economies” of Russia and India.
Medvedev had also harshly criticized Trump’s threat of new sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine.
Accusing Trump of “playing the ultimatum game,” he posted Monday on X that Trump “should remember” that Russia is a formidable force.