Published On 4/23/2026
Russia has warned any European country that accepts the deployment of French strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons, stressing that any country that does so “will make itself a target for attacks by Russian forces in the event of a conflict.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said, in an interview published on Thursday, that this is part of an “uncontrolled expansion” of NATO’s nuclear capabilities, which poses a strategic threat to Russia, and stressed Moscow’s concern about possible French nuclear deployments in other European countries.
“It is clear that our army will have to pay close attention to this issue in the context of updating the list of priority targets in the event of a major conflict,” Grushko added to the state-run Russia Today media network. “As a result, instead of France’s declared strengthening of the defense of its allies, to whom, by the way, it does not provide any categorical guarantees, the security of these countries is actually weakening.”
He pointed out that any future dialogue on nuclear weapons must take into account NATO’s joint capabilities, including the French and British arsenals in addition to the American arsenal.
French expansion
Last March, French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to expand the country’s nuclear arsenal, and said that his country may allow its European partners to host its nuclear-capable aircraft on temporary deployments.
Macron added that Paris is discussing such arrangements with Britain, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden and Denmark.
Macron’s initiative comes within the framework of a campaign led by European members of NATO to take more responsibility for their defense, after US President Donald Trump’s repeated criticism of the alliance, and in light of his threats to seize control of Greenland from Denmark, a member of NATO.
The expiration of the last remaining treaty to limit the size of Russian and American strategic nuclear arsenals, last February, created a vacuum in the field of global arms control, at a time when international tension is at its highest levels in decades due to the wars in Ukraine and Iran.
This week, NATO criticized Russia and China for their policies related to nuclear weapons, and urged the two countries to work with the United States to achieve greater stability and transparency in a conference opening at the United Nations headquarters in New York next week, to review the functioning of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
