The UK government has seen no major change to Russia's nuclear posture despite President Vladimir Putin placing his strategic forces on higher alert, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Monday.

"We've looked at their posture. There isn't a significant change," he said on LBC radio, accusing Putin of trying to "flex muscles" with his invasion of Ukraine bogged down.

Wallace said he had assured his 12-year-old son: "No, we're not going to have a nuclear war.

"What I've said to him is, look, President Putin is dealing at the moment in a rhetoric, he wants to distract from what's gone wrong in Ukraine, and he wants us all to be reminded that he has a nuclear deterrent."

But Britain, France and the United States had their own nuclear deterrence available, Wallace stressed: "It's kept us safe for decades. It is a deterrent by definition and design."

The minister said the progress of Russia's advance into Ukraine was deteriorating, telling BBC radio in a separate interview: "There are many reports of Russians either sort of deserting or surrendering.

"Because they are confused as much as anyone why they are engaged in a war with people they're probably related to."

Nuclear sabre-rattling: other times when war threatened
Paris (AFP) Feb 28, 2022 - With President Vladimir Putin putting Russia's vast nuclear arsenal -- the world's largest -- on alert, we look back on other moments the threat of atomic war loomed.

- 1962: Cuban missile crisis -

In October 1962, at the heart of the Cold War, a 13-day showdown between Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and US president John F. Kennedy leads to fears of nuclear war.

On October 14, US reconnaissance aircraft photograph Soviet intermediate-range missile launch pads on Cuba, just 145 kilometres (90 miles) from the US.

Unwilling to allow the Soviets to position their nuclear arsenal so close to the US, Kennedy warns Khrushchev he will attack the Soviet Union if it does not withdraw the missiles, and orders a naval blockade of Cuba, mobilising 140,000 troops.

Khrushchev agrees to withdraw the missiles in return for Washington promising not to invade Cuba and taking its Jupiter missiles out of Turkey.

- 2001-2002: India-Pakistan nuclear crisis -

In May 2002, India and Pakistan, at odds over the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir since their partition in 1947, go to the brink.

India blames Islamists from Pakistan for a suicide attack against the parliament in New Delhi on December 13, 2001, which left 14 dead.

The two countries, which became nuclear powers in 1998, mobilise a million soldiers on the border.

In April 2002, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf says he would use nuclear weapons if threatened with destruction by an attack from India.

India's defence minister George Fernandes says "India can survive a nuclear attack, but Pakistan cannot."

For the next two years New Delhi and Islamabad carry out tit-for-tat missile tests, but there is then a de-escalation under pressure from Washington.

A ceasefire in November 2003 is followed by dialogue in January 2004.

- Hiroshima and Nagasaki -

The US is the only country to have used nuclear weapons. The attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 killed 214,000 people and led to the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II.

Related Links
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com
Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com
All about missiles at SpaceWar.com
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com

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Genocide and nuclear bombs: Putin's unfounded claims
Moscow (AFP) Feb 23, 2022
Genocide, nuclear ambitions, neo-Nazis: the Russian president's incendiary rhetoric this week against Ukraine and its leaders has portrayed them as diabolical, fanatical and intent on harming Russia. Many of the outrageous claims were contained in a televised address Vladimir Putin gave on Monday in which he recognised two separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, setting off alarm bells around the world. Here are some of the key claims Putin has made: - Genocide - This unfounded accusation ... read more