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Russia president Vladimir Putin has put his country's nuclear forces on high alert, which effectively put the whole world on high alert.

The Russian deterrence forces, units that include nuclear arms, were called upon after he ordered his military command units on high alert, as he said Western countries are taking "unfriendly" steps against his country.

The Russian leader cited aggressive statements by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders and economic sanctions against Moscow following the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Putin said on state television on Feb. 27: "As you can see, not only do Western countries take unfriendly measures against our country in the economic dimension -- I mean the illegal sanctions that everyone knows about very well -- but also the top officials of leading NATO countries allow themselves to make aggressive statements with regards to our country."

"I order the defence minister and the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces to put the deterrence forces of the Russian army into a special mode of combat service."

In response, Defence Minister Shoigu replied: "Affirmative."

Naturally Putin was sitting a healthy 15 feet away from Shoigu and Gerasimov at the end of a ridiculously long table when he told them to get the nukes out pic.twitter.com/xmNUn21Aa1

— max seddon (@maxseddon) February 27, 2022

Russia's cache of nuclear weapons

Moscow has the world's second-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and a huge cache of ballistic missiles.

These capabilities form the backbone of Russia's deterrence forces.

Ukraine's response

Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Putin of seeking to increase "pressure" by calling upon nuclear forces, and in response, said Kyiv would not buckle at talks with Russia over its invasion.

"We will not surrender, we will not capitulate, we will not give up a single inch of our territory," Kuleba said at a press conference broadcast online.

United States response

The United States in response said Putin's nuclear forces alert represents a "totally unacceptable" escalation of the invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. further accused Putin of fabricating threats to justify "further aggression".

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on ABC in response to Putin's announcement that Putin is "manufacturing threats that don't exist in order to justify further aggression".

Top photo via Moscow broadcast

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