U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines on Friday, August 1st, in an extraordinary escalation of a war of words on social media with Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s security council.
On his Truth Social channel, Trump said “Based on the highly provocative statements,” he “ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.”
“Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances,” the president posted.
Trump did not say in his post whether he meant nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines. He also did not elaborate on the exact deployment locations, which are kept secret by the U.S. military.
But in an interview with Newsmax broadcast on Friday night, Trump said the submarines were “closer to Russia.”
Trump’s remarks came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had started mass producing its hypersonic nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile, and could deploy them to Belarus, a close Russian ally neighbouring Ukraine, by year-end.
The nuclear threats came as the deadline set by Trump for the end of next week for Russia to take steps to ending the Ukraine war or face unspecified new sanctions draws near.
Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said on Friday that he wants peace but that his demands for ending the nearly three-and-a-half year invasion were “unchanged.”
Those demands include that Ukraine abandon territory and end ambitions to join NATO.
Putin, speaking alongside Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, said Belarusian and Russian specialists “have chosen a place for future positions” of the Oreshnik missiles.
“Work is now underway to prepare these positions. So, most likely, we will close this issue by the end of the year,” he added.