Putin puts Russian nuclear forces on high alert
Moscow is slapped with new financial sanctions and Germany increases its military spending
Ibrahim Al-TarikMay 9, 2025
Vladimir Putin put Russia's nuclear forces on high alert as his troops continued to face fierce resistance from the Ukrainian military and the West stepped up efforts to punish Moscow for the biggest war in Europe in more than 50 years.
Putin's move came after the US and its Western allies agreed to impose sanctions on Russia's central bank and bar some of the country's lenders from the Swift messaging system, vital for global payments - one of the toughest measures ever taken against a G20 economy.
This is one of the toughest measures ever taken at the G20 summit. On Sunday, a historic shift in German defence policy followed as Chancellor Olaf Scholz abandoned the country's longstanding restraint and announced a massive increase in military spending in response to the "new era" marked by Russia's invasion of its neighbour.
The US condemned Russia's actions as "totally unacceptable" and said Putin wanted to "terrify the world".
Putin ordered Russia's strategic deterrent forces, including units responsible for its nuclear capabilities, to be put on high alert in response to what he called "illegitimate Western sanctions".
At a meeting in the Kremlin, the Russian president told his defence minister and chief of general staff that "Western countries are not only taking unfriendly economic measures against our country ... but that the leaders of the main NATO countries are making aggressive statements about our country".
Putin's order, which applies to both the traditional nuclear deterrent and the new hypersonic missiles, does not mean he is telling Russia to prepare for a nuclear strike. It is, however, in line with a doctrine published in 2020 that Russia reserves the right to use its nuclear weapons "if the existence of the state is threatened in the event of aggression by regular weapons".
Earlier this week, Putin threatened countries that tried to stop his attack on Ukraine with "consequences that you have never experienced in your history". In 2015, he ordered Russia's nuclear forces to be put on combat readiness after the annexation of Crimea a year earlier.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said she was "not surprised" that Putin had put Russia's nuclear deterrent forces on alert, saying he had "tried everything possible to actually scare the world".
In an interview with CBS on Sunday, Thomas-Greenfield said, "President Putin continues to escalate this war in a way that is completely unacceptable." The decision underscores the need to hold the Russian president accountable both at the UN and elsewhere, she added.
On the ground in Ukraine, the mayor of Kharkiv said Ukrainian forces had regained full control of the country's second-largest city after beating back a Russian attack that also involved special forces and was the first since the invasion launched by Putin four days ago.
The head of the regional administration, Oleg Synegubov, said in a Telegram posting that the city had been "completely cleared" of Russian troops. "We have complete control over Kharkiv," he said. Residents of the city were warned to stay in their homes.
Russia stepped up artillery attacks on Kharkiv and the capital Kiev, which it continues to slowly encircle. Inside Kiev, however, Russian troops that had entered the city continued to meet strong resistance, while residents sought refuge from the shelling in basements, underground garages and metro stations.
On Sunday, the German chancellor announced plans to spend more than 2 percent of gross domestic product on the military. "The invasion of Ukraine marks the beginning of a new era," he told a special session of the Bundestag, where many MPs wore the colours yellow and blue in honour of Ukraine.
Elsewhere, video footage on social media showed Ukrainian forces repulsing a Russian attack on Irpin, a small town west of Kiev. "Irpin has been defended," Mayor Alexander Markushin said on Facebook.
Russia, however, claimed to be advancing in southern Ukraine, where its forces are moving north from the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
The army said it had sealed off the cities of Kherson and Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov, captured the town of Genichesk and taken control of Chornobayivka airfield.
The Russian and Ukrainian military's statements cannot be independently verified.
Russia said it had sent a delegation to Belarus and was ready to start peace talks, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky countered that he would not hold talks in a country that served as a staging area for the invasion.
"We want to meet, we want an end to the war. Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku - we offered that to the Russian side," Zelensky said. "And any other city suits us - in a country where there are no missiles flying. This is the only way to negotiate honestly and really end the war. "
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, called the Russian offer a "primitive and predictable propagandist story". He said Ukraine would firmly reject the idea of talks as long as Russia continued to shell Ukrainian territory, calling the offer an "ultimatum".
The diplomatic moves followed the announcement by the US and its Western allies that they would impose the toughest sanctions on Russia since the conflict began.
The US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the European Commission said the measures would prevent Russia's central bank from using its international reserves to undermine broader sanctions.
The countries' leaders added that they would exclude some Russian banks from the Swift system to ensure that they were "disconnected from the international financial system" and impaired in their ability to operate. The Western allies also promised to crack down on the "golden passports" that allow rich Russians to acquire citizenship and to impose sanctions on officials and elites close to the government.
The sanctions have sparked fear in Moscow and other Russian cities. People stormed ATMs and bank branches in search of cash, fearing a further drop in the value of the already severely weakened rouble.
Russia's central bank tried to calm the markets somewhat before opening on Monday. In a statement on Sunday, it said it would provide banks with a steady supply of rouble liquidity. "The Russian banking system is stable and has sufficient capital reserves and liquidity to function without failures in any situation," the bank said.
Russian airlines were also cut off from most of Europe's airspace over the weekend. Finland, Belgium and Ireland are the latest countries to ban Russian airlines from landing and approaching, joining a growing list. EU officials expect an EU-wide ban to be announced later on Sunday.
