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.

“Earlier than that, we had solely workout routines. However on the day the battle began, the weapons had been totally in place,” says the previous officer within the Russian nuclear forces. “We had been able to launch the forces into the ocean and air and, in principle, perform 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’ve got additionally modified his title and should not 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 bottom”.

“All we had was Russian state TV,” says the previous officer, “I didn’t actually know what all of it meant. I routinely carried out my duties. We weren’t combating within the battle, we had been simply 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 internal workings of the nuclear forces in Russia. This can be very uncommon for service members to speak to journalists.

“There’s a very strict choice course of there. Everyone seems to be knowledgeable soldier – no conscripts,” he explains.

“There are fixed checks and lie-detector checks for everybody. The pay is way increased, and the troops aren’t despatched to battle. They’re there to both repel, or perform, a nuclear strike.”

The previous officer says life was tightly managed.

“It was my duty to make sure the troopers beneath me didn’t take any telephones on to the nuclear base,” he explains.

“It’s a closed society, there are not any strangers there. In order for you your dad and mom to go to, that you must submit a request to the FSB Safety Service three months prematurely.”

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

“We had fixed coaching workout routines. Our response time was two minutes,” he says, with a touch of delight.

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

There are additionally issues about whether or not Putin may select to deploy “non-strategic”, usually 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 could actually to check the West’s nerves.

Solely final week Putin ratified adjustments 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 “large assault” from typical missiles by a non-nuclear state however “with the participation or assist of a nuclear state”.

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

However is Russia’s nuclear arsenal totally useful?

Some Western specialists have instructed its weapons principally date from the Soviet period, and won’t even work.

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

“There could be some old style kinds of weapons in some areas, however the nation has an unlimited nuclear arsenal, an enormous quantity of warheads, together with fixed fight patrol on land, sea and air.”

Russia’s nuclear weapons had been totally operational and battle-ready, he maintained. “The work to take care of the nuclear weapons is carried out consistently, it by no means stops even for one minute.”

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

“They mentioned that Ukrainian civilians are combatants and ought to be destroyed!” he exclaims. “That’s a crimson line for me – it’s a battle crime. I mentioned I received’t unfold this propaganda.”

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

These items are sometimes despatched in to battle because the “first wave” and quite a few Russian deserters have advised 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.

Earlier than he could possibly be despatched to the entrance line, Anton signed an announcement 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 native FSB Safety Service would’ve reacted decisively and I in all probability wouldn’t have been in a position to go away the nation,” he mentioned.

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

Anton mentioned he needed the world to know that many Russian troopers had been in opposition to the battle.

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

The dangers to these fleeing are rising, too. Not less than 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.

Though Anton has left Russia, he says safety companies are nonetheless in search of him there: “I take precautions right here, I work off the books and I don’t present up in any official programs.”

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

However he’s beneath no phantasm in regards to the danger he’s himself in by serving to different troopers to flee.

“I perceive the extra I do this, the upper the probabilities they may try to kill me.”