Russian deserter reveals war secrets of guarding nuclear base

On the day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Anton says the nuclear weapons base he was serving at was placed on full fight alert.

“Before that, we had only exercises. But on the day the war started, the weapons were fully in place,” says the previous officer within the Russian nuclear forces. “We were ready to launch the forces into the sea and air and, in theory, carry out a nuclear strike.”

I met Anton in a secret location outdoors Russia. For his personal safety, the BBC is not going to reveal the place. We have additionally modified his title and aren’t exhibiting his face.

Anton was an officer at a top-secret nuclear weapons facility in Russia.

He has proven us paperwork confirming his unit, rank and base.

The BBC is unable to independently confirm all of the occasions he described, though they do chime with Russian statements on the time.

Three days after troops poured over Ukraine’s borders, Vladimir Putin introduced that Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces had been ordered into a “special mode of combat service”.

Anton says that fight alert was in place on day one of many battle and claims his unit was “shut inside the base”.

“All we had was Russian state TV,” says the previous officer, “I didn’t really know what it all meant. I automatically carried out my duties. We weren’t fighting in the war, we were just guarding the nuclear weapons.”

The state of alert was cancelled, he provides, after two to 3 weeks.

Anton’s testimony gives an perception into the top-secret inside workings of the nuclear forces in Russia. It is extraordinarily uncommon for service members to speak to journalists.

“There is a very strict selection process there. Everyone is a professional soldier – no conscripts,” he explains.

“There are constant checks and lie-detector tests for everyone. The pay is much higher, and the troops aren’t sent to war. They’re there to either repel, or carry out, a nuclear strike.”

The former officer says life was tightly managed.

“It was my responsibility to ensure the soldiers under me didn’t take any phones on to the nuclear base,” he explains.

“It’s a closed society, there are no strangers there. If you want your parents to visit, you need to submit a request to the FSB Security Service three months in advance.”

Anton was a part of the bottom’s safety unit – a rapid-reaction pressure that guarded the nuclear weapons.

“We had constant training exercises. Our reaction time was two minutes,” he says, with a touch of pleasure.

Russia has round 4,380 operational nuclear warheads, in keeping with the Federation of American Scientists, however just one,700 are “deployed” or prepared to be used. All the Nato member states mixed possess an analogous quantity.

There are additionally considerations about whether or not Putin may select to deploy “non-strategic”, typically referred to as tactical, nuclear weapons. These are smaller missiles that typically don’t trigger widespread radioactive fallout.

Their use would nonetheless result in a harmful escalation within the battle.

The Kremlin has been doing all it may to check the West’s nerves.

Only final week Putin ratified modifications to the nuclear doctrine – the official guidelines dictating how and when Russia can launch nuclear weapons.

The doctrine now says Russia can launch if it comes beneath “massive attack” from typical missiles by a non-nuclear state however “with the participation or support of a nuclear state”.

Russian officers say the up to date doctrine “effectively eliminates” the opportunity of its defeat on the battlefield.

But is Russia’s nuclear arsenal totally purposeful?

Some Western specialists have instructed its weapons principally date from the Soviet period, and may not even work.

The former nuclear forces officer rejected that opinion as a “very simplified view from so-called experts”.

“There might be some old-fashioned types of weapons in some areas, but the country has an enormous nuclear arsenal, a huge amount of warheads, including constant combat patrol on land, sea and air.”

Russia’s nuclear weapons have been totally operational and battle-ready, he maintained. “The work to maintain the nuclear weapons is carried out constantly, it never stops even for one minute.”

Shortly after the full-scale battle started, Anton stated he was given what he describes as a “criminal order” – to carry lectures together with his troops utilizing very particular written pointers.

“They said that Ukrainian civilians are combatants and should be destroyed!” he exclaims. “That’s a red line for me – it’s a war crime. I said I won’t spread this propaganda.”

Senior officers reprimanded Anton by transferring him to a daily assault brigade in one other a part of the nation. He was informed he can be despatched to battle.

These models are sometimes despatched in to battle because the “first wave” and plenty of Russian deserters have informed the BBC that “troublemakers” who object to the battle have been used as “cannon fodder”.

The Russian embassy in London didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Before he might be despatched to the entrance line, Anton signed a press release refusing to participate within the battle and a prison case was opened in opposition to him. He confirmed us paperwork confirming his switch to the assault brigade and particulars of the prison case.

He then determined to flee the nation with the assistance of a volunteer organisation for deserters.

“If I had run away from the nuclear forces base, then the local FSB Security Service would’ve reacted decisively and I probably wouldn’t have been able to leave the country,” he stated.

But he believes that, as a result of he had been transferred to an strange assault brigade, the system of top-level safety clearance failed.

Anton stated he wished the world to know that many Russian troopers have been in opposition to the battle.

The volunteer organisation that helps deserters, “Idite Lesom” [‘Go by the Forest’, in English, or ‘Get Lost’] has informed the BBC that the variety of deserters in search of assist has risen to 350 a month.

The dangers to these fleeing are rising, too. At least one deserter has been killed after fleeing overseas, and there have been a number of circumstances of males being forcibly returned to Russia and placed on trial.

Although Anton has left Russia, he says safety companies are nonetheless on the lookout for him there: “I take precautions here, I work off the books and I don’t show up in any official systems.”

He says he has stopped talking to his associates on the nuclear base as a result of he may put them at risk: “They must take lie-detector tests, and any contact with me could lead to a criminal case.”

But he’s beneath no phantasm concerning the threat he’s himself in by serving to different troopers to flee.

“I understand the more I do that, the higher the chances they could try and kill me.”