Military Convoy Carrying Nuclear Warheads Spotted in Europe amid Ukraine Invasion
NukeWatch reports up to 6 nuclear weapons being trasported
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A military convoy carrying nuclear weapons has been spotted on the move in Europe as Russia's invasion of Ukraine rages on, according to reports.
The convoy, transporting up to six nuclear warheads, was spotted moving through the United Kindom.
The sighting comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin has put his nuclear forces on high alert following his invasion of Ukraine.
The convoy was carrying up to six nuclear warheads only a mile south of Glasgow, Scotland, heading to Royal Naval Armaments Depot Coulport on Loch Long, according to NukeWatch, an organization that tracks and monitors the convoys that transport the UK’s Trident nuclear warheads.
"The nuclear-armed convoy passed over Erskine Bridge, heading up along the M6 motorway near Kendal, before being spotted on the M74 at Lesmahagow and arriving in Loch Long at approximately 11:30 pm on Saturday,” the Daily Mail reported.
"I think there were four warhead carriers I believe,” Nukewatch UK Campaigner Jane Tallents told a local publication.
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"Our reckoning is that each of those trucks can carry two but one of the trucks is empty as a spare in case [sic] breaks down," Tallents added.
"So if there’s four we expect there to be six warheads, or up to six warheads anyway."
The organization claimed that the most likely reason that the warheads were transferred was for maintenance purposes, and not to prepare for their use in battle.
"I don’t think this convoy is of any more concern than the fact that we are always, 24/7, armed and ready to start a nuclear war,” Tallents said.
"All the things that some of us have worried about constantly since the 60s, they come to pass really.
"People have forgotten about it but they are there.”
The move comes as the war in Ukraine has nearly reached the one-month mark since Russian forces invaded.
Shortly after Putin invaded Ukraine, he ordered the country’s nuclear forces be put on high alert.
"Citing ‘aggressive statements’ by NATO and tough financial sanctions, Putin issued a directive to increase the readiness of Russia’s nuclear weapons, raising fears that the invasion of Ukraine could lead to nuclear war, whether by design or mistake,” the Associated Press reported.
"The Russian leader is ‘potentially putting in play forces that, if there’s a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous,’ said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss rapidly unfolding military operations.”
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U.S. officials now warn that Putin may brandish nuclear threats as the war is not going in his favor with Ukrainian forces grinding the Russian military’s advances to a halt.
"Protracted occupation of parts of Ukrainian territory threatens to sap Russian military manpower and reduce their modernized weapons arsenal, while consequent economic sanctions will probably throw Russia into prolonged economic depression and diplomatic isolation,” Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in a report.
"As this war and its consequences slowly weaken Russian conventional strength. Russia likely will increasingly rely on its nuclear deterrent to signal the West and project strength to its internal and external audiences.”
