Risk of clash between nuclear powers is growing, Russian security official says

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian security official Sergei Shoigu warned in an interview published on Friday that the risk of an armed clash between nuclear powers was rising.

Shoigu, the secretary of President Vladimir Putin's Security Council, told TASS news agency: "Against the backdrop of increasing conflict and aggravation of geopolitical rivalry in the world, the risks of a violent clash between major states, including with the participation of nuclear powers, are growing."

The former defence minister said that NATO was increasing activities on its eastern flank, close to Russia and Belarus, and rehearsing offensive as well as defensive scenarios there.

NATO says it is Russia that is raising tensions, including by announcing in 2023 that it was deploying tactical nuclear weapons in its ally Belarus, which borders three NATO countries.

Shoigu said that Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, and Belarus were taking preventive measures against Western attempts aimed at "destabilizing the situation... from within".

He reiterated that Belarus was now under the protection of Russia's nuclear arsenal, as a consequence of changes that Putin announced last year to Russia's doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons.

"The Russian 'nuclear umbrella' now ensures the protection of our closest ally in the same framework scenarios in which Russia allows a nuclear response for its own defence," he said.

"Namely, when repelling an attack using weapons of mass destruction or aggression using conventional weapons that creates a critical threat to sovereignty or territorial integrity."

(Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Mark Trevelyan, Editing by Timothy Heritage)