Russia starts mass-producing nuclear-resistant mobile bomb shelters

Russia has begun mass-producing mobile bomb shelters that can protect against shockwaves and radiation from a nuclear blast. The emergency ministry’s research institute said the ‘KUB-M’ shelter could offer protection for 54 people for up to two days against natural and man-made hazards. Among those it listed were explosions and shrapnel from conventional weapons, falling debris from buildings, dangerous chemicals and fires.

It comes as Vladimir Putin this morning signed off a document to lower Russia’s threshold for launching nukes. The new doctrine, which replaces the previous iteration outlined in 2020, allows Moscow to deploy its weapons if Russia or Belarus is threatened by a non-nuclear nation supported by a nuclear power.

The ‘KUB-M’ mobile bomb shelters look like reinforced shipping containers and consist of two modules – a room for 54 people and a technical block. ‘The mobile shelter is a multifunctional structure that provides protection for people from various threats, including natural disasters and man-made accidents,’ the research institute said, calling it ‘an important step towards improving the safety of citizens’.

It can easily be transported on a truck and connected to water supplies, and can also be deployed in Russia’s vast northern permafrost, it added. The move has not been linked to any current crisis, although the announcement came just days after President Joe Biden agreed to allow Ukraine to fire US long-range missiles deep into Russia. The Kremlin has branded this decision as reckless and warned that it would draw a response from Moscow.

This morning US-made missiles rained down on Russian soil striking an ammunition depot in Russia’s Bryansk region. ‘This is, of course, a signal that they want to escalate,’ Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking at a G20 press conference in Brazil, said of the strike.

‘We will be taking this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia. And we will react accordingly,’ he added, accusing Washington of helping Kyiv operate the missiles. Lavrov also urged the West to read the decree signed by Putin, saying in a stark warning: ‘I hope that they will read this doctrine… in its entirety.’

But Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed claims that the provision of ATACMS has brought hundreds of prized Russian military and logistics assets within range of Kyiv’s crosshairs. The ATACMS strike in Bryansk triggered a fiery explosion at an ammunition depot in Karachev around 75 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Eyewitnesses along with Russian and Ukrainian military bloggers first reported the attack, with anonymous Ukrainian military officials later telling RBC Ukraine the strike was conducted with the US-manufactured ATACMS. Kyiv is yet to officially confirm the ATACMS strike, but Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed they shot down five missiles. A sixth missile was damaged but ultimately landed on the military facility, it said. In anticipation of Ukraine receiving permission to use ATACMS, Russia’s air force is said to have redeployed many of its fighter jets and strategic bomber aircraft away from the airbases in range of the missiles to sites further east.

But there are still more than 200 military facilities that could be battered by the US-manufactured munitions from positions along the 800-mile-long frontline. Among the first likely targets for Ukrainian strikes could be the Kuzminka Military Base, a critical staging area for Putin’s forces between the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and the Ukrainian border which acts as a hub for vehicle storage, troop assembly and operational planning. Russia’s 381st artillery regiment is also located close to the Kuzminka base along with several logistics centers.

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