Russian envoy says US views Europe as potential nuclear battleground

A senior Russian diplomat accused the United States on Sunday of treating Europe as a potential nuclear battlefield, arguing that Washington’s persistent push for talks on Russian tactical nuclear weapons reveals a willingness to consider using nuclear arms within a European conflict.

Ambassador at large Andrey Belousov made the remarks in an interview with Russian broadcaster RT, saying the intensity with which Washington seeks dialogue on Russia’s non strategic nuclear arsenal suggests American officials are seriously weighing the possibility of nuclear use in the European theater. He said the US essentially regards Europe as exactly that kind of potential military theater.

Belousov argued that by pressing Russia to engage in discussions over its non strategic nuclear weapons, Washington is attempting to shift international attention away from the risks posed by American nuclear weapons already stationed in Europe, along with the broader US missile defense and nuclear modernization programs. He said that increasing transparency around Russia’s tactical arsenal, or reducing and eliminating it, could actually raise the likelihood of a scenario involving nuclear use by the United States and its European allies.

He said he hopes Europe recognizes the danger inherent in what he described as a purely operational military approach that Washington applies to the territory of its own allies.

According to Belousov, the presence of US nuclear weapons in European NATO countries, along with the alliance’s nuclear sharing arrangements, has concerned Moscow for years. He said the expansion of those arrangements, including drawing additional NATO members into exercises tied to potential nuclear weapons use, continues to raise risks to Russian security.

Belousov said Russia cut its non strategic nuclear arsenal by a factor of four in the early 1990s and consolidated its remaining weapons into centralized storage facilities, adding that Moscow had expected the United States to take reciprocal steps at the time. He argued that subsequent American actions failed to meaningfully change the broader military and political situation across Europe.

He also pointed to the collapse of various arms control and nuclear disarmament agreements, combined with US plans to build a multilayered missile defense system under the Golden Dome program and to modernize its nuclear forces, as developments that have significantly worsened the overall strategic environment.

Belousov said Russia is working to launch an international discussion around what it views as the destabilizing nature of NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangements, while also encouraging the United States to withdraw its nuclear weapons from European soil. He said Moscow nonetheless remains open to resuming strategic dialogue with Washington, though he cautioned that prospects for reaching mutually acceptable agreements currently appear limited.

He stressed that any future negotiations should rest on the principle of equal and indivisible security and should address the full range of factors influencing strategic stability rather than isolating individual issues. He added that Russia would respond to developments in the strategic arms sphere through a mix of political, diplomatic and military technical measures intended to preserve strategic balance and counter any additional threats to its security.

Belousov’s comments come as the United States continues maintaining nuclear weapons in Europe as part of NATO’s broader nuclear deterrence framework. The Pentagon has said Washington remains committed to that deterrence posture while pressing European NATO members to take on greater responsibility for the alliance’s conventional defense capabilities.

US President Donald Trump said this week that he is not concerned about the possibility of Russia attacking NATO territory, even as European governments express growing unease over a potential Russian military challenge to the alliance. NATO, for its part, has criticized Russia’s expansion and modernization of its non strategic nuclear capabilities, while Moscow continues to describe its nuclear arsenal as the only effective deterrent against an alliance it says significantly outnumbers Russian conventional forces.

The status of non strategic, or tactical, nuclear weapons has remained a persistent point of friction in arms control discussions between Washington and Moscow. Both countries maintain substantial tactical nuclear stockpiles, and the United States continues to station nuclear weapons in Europe under NATO arrangements. Belousov’s remarks arrive amid broader tension over the future of European security and arms control, following the expiration in February of the New START treaty, which had stood as the last remaining agreement limiting American and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals.