British intelligence says the West may not detect a Russian nuclear attack in time

MADRID, 12 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

UK intelligence chief Jeremy Fleming said on Tuesday that Western countries may not see a Russian nuclear attack coming in time.

"I would like to think that with our allies we would have a good chance of detecting it, but of course there are never guarantees in this space," Fleming said during a security conference, according to the British newspaper 'The Telegraph'.

According to the director of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ, for its acronym in English), Russia is "the only nation" that speaks about the use of nuclear weapons, a fact that he has described as "extremely dangerous".

For this reason, he recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin's "veiled nuclear threats" were "dangerous and irresponsible", while maintaining that the Kremlin is aware that a nuclear war "cannot be won".

Likewise, Fleming has underlined the words of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who explained that the defense alliance is "closely monitoring" Russia's nuclear forces.

However, the British government has refused to explain how it would respond to a Russian nuclear attack, according to the aforementioned newspaper.

Defense Secretary Alec Shelbrooke said doing so would not be "tactically smart" after Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the House of Commons Defense Committee, hinted that "clarity could be the deterrent to help prevent such hostile action." ".

"It has not been and has never been tactically intelligent to outline exactly what the responses to a potential situation would be, and we will continue in the line that this Government has drawn and that precisely what the Secretary General (of NATO) has outlined," he replied. Shelbrooke.

"President Putin must be clear that for the UK and our allies, any use of nuclear weapons would break a taboo on nuclear use that has been in place since 1945 and would have serious consequences for Russia," he told the UK Parliament.