Russia has the right to house nuclear weapons anywhere on its territory if necessary, including the option of stationing them in Crimea, a statement from the Foreign Ministry read.
“Russia obviously retains the right, if needed, to deploy its nuclear weapons anywhere on its national territory, including on the Crimean Peninsula,” the Director of the Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms control at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mikhail Ulyanov told the RIA Novosti news agency on Monday.
Ulyanov’s statement comes in response to the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin's statement in May that the deployment of Russian arms in Crimea would violate the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Mikhail had said that the US missile defense plans remain a major challenge in relations between Moscow and Washington, while also mentioning that discussions between the two countries concerning nuclear disarmament are not looking positive.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry announced plans that during snap combat readiness exercises it would redeploy 10 Tu-22M3 long-range aircrafts capable of delivering nuclear weapons. However, there was no mention of arming them with nuclear warheads.
