U.S. President Donald
Trump on Friday said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be
positioned in “the appropriate regions” in response to
statements from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
“Based on the highly provocative statements of the Former
President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev … I have ordered two
Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions,
just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more
than just that,” Trump said in a social media post.
He added: “Words are very important, and can often lead to
unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those
instances.”
He did not specify what he meant by “nuclear
submarines.” Submarines may be nuclear-powered, or armed with
nuclear missiles.
It is extremely rare for the U.S. military to discuss
the deployment and location of U.S. submarines given their
sensitive mission in nuclear deterrence. The U.S. Navy declined
comment. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request
for comment.
Trump and Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s
Security Council, have traded taunts in recent days after Trump
on Tuesday said Russia had “10 days from today” to agree to a
ceasefire in Ukraine or be hit with tariffs, along with its oil
buyers.
Medvedev on Thursday said Trump should remember that Moscow
possessed Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities of last resort,
after Trump told Medvedev to “watch his words.”
Moscow, which has set out its own terms for peace in
Ukraine, has given no indication that it will comply with
Trump’s deadline of August 8.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow
hoped for more peace talks with Ukraine but that the momentum of
the war was in its favor. He made no reference to the deadline.
Trump, who in the past touted good relations with Putin,
has expressed mounting frustration with the Russian leader,
accusing him of “bullshit” and describing Russia’s latest
attacks on Ukraine as disgusting.
Medvedev has emerged as one of the Kremlin’s most outspoken
anti-Western hawks since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops
into Ukraine in 2022. Kremlin critics deride him as an
irresponsible loose cannon, though some Western diplomats say
his statements illustrate the thinking in senior Kremlin
policy-making circles.
Trump also rebuked Medvedev in July, accusing him of
throwing around the “N (nuclear) word” after the Russian
official criticized U.S. strikes on Iran and said “a number of
countries” were ready to supply Iran with nuclear warheads. “I
guess that’s why Putin’s ‘THE BOSS'”, Trump said at the time.
The U.S. president took office in January having
promised to end the Ukraine war on Day One, but has not been
able to get Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.
Only six countries operate nuclear-powered submarines: the
U.S., the UK, Russia, China, France and India.
The U.S. Navy has 71 commissioned submarines including 53
fast attack submarines, 14 ballistic-missile submarines, and
four guided-missile submarines. All of them are nuclear-powered,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. President DonaldTrump on Friday said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to bepositioned in “the appropriate regions” in response tostatements from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.“Based on the highly provocative statements of the FormerPresident of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev … I have ordered twoNuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions,just in case these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n