Russia is “fully prepared” to detonate a nuclear device in the Arctic “at any moment”, it was announced today as Vladimir Putin continues exercises not seen since the Cold War.
The director of an old Soviet testing center in the Novaya Zelmlya archipelago stressed that the testing facilities are ready and can be used immediately “if the order is given.”
Rear Admiral Andrei Sinitsyn said: ‘The testing site is ready to resume large-scale testing activities… The laboratory and testing facilities are ready. The staff is ready.’
Sinitsyn told the state-run Rossiyskaya Gazeta that “foreign intelligence services” were monitoring the site, “probably a sign of concern about nuclear tests.”
“We are constantly ready to repel all types of threats, including the penetration of sabotage and reconnaissance groups on the island,” he said.
A Russian nuclear-capable Iskander-M missile is launched, no date given
The old Soviet test site in the Novaya Zelmlya archipelago was decommissioned in 1990
Vice Admiral Andrei Sinitsyn spoke to Rossiyskaya Gazeta about the developments
Russian special forces train to repel sabotage group invasion of Novaya Zemlya
Mr Sinitsyn said that the ‘Central Test Site of the Russian Federation’ would be used for ‘conducting and offering experiments with non-nuclear explosives’.
He said the tests were “in the interests of state security.”
But when asked if the site was ready to “resume nuclear testing if necessary,” he said: “The test site is ready to resume large-scale testing activities. Absolutely ready.”
If Vladimir Putin gives the order, the test could still take place.
The site has not been used for nuclear testing since October 1990, when the struggling Soviet Union ruled out future tests conducted by Russia.
Images obtained last year by the Middlebury Institute for International Studies showed an increase in construction on the remote island, RFE reported at the time.
A comparison of images from July 2021 and June 2023 showed large trucks, construction cranes, shipping containers and building materials being brought into the settlement for the expansion.
Mr Sinitsyn said the main priorities and raison d’être of the site were to deter perceived aggressors through the “readiness” of the testing infrastructure on the ground.
He said this included maintaining a “laboratory” and an “experimental base,” both of which were “ready.”
“The test site has the right personnel, the right weapons, the right equipment, in short, everything that is necessary for our activities,” he said.
The warning came days after MP Andrei Kolesnik said Putin should approve a nuclear test as a warning to the West.
“We need to carry out a nuclear explosion somewhere, on a testing ground,” demanded Andrei Kolesnik, representing the ruling United Russia party.
‘At the moment, nuclear testing is prohibited in our country.
‘But maybe people should see where this is all leading, they should hear it.
“If we lift the moratorium, maybe humanity will think twice.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned this week that allowing long-range strikes on Russia “would mean that NATO countries… and European countries are at war with Russia”
Andrei Kolesnik said Putin should authorize nuclear bomb test as warning to the West
Ukrainian soldiers fire mortars at Russian positions in Donetsk region, Ukraine
Ukrainian soldiers operate a tank on a road near the border with Russia, in the Sumy region of Ukraine, on August 14, 2024
Parliament Speaker Vyachelsav Volodin warned today that in the event of attacks on Russian cities with Western missiles, “more powerful weapons are ready” to retaliate.
Russia today stepped up preparations for nuclear war by holding exercises with giant Yars missile launchers in the Ivanovo region.
Footage showed the huge, mobile rocket systems “marching up to 100 kilometers” [62 miles] and practice deploying units, simultaneously changing and equipping their field positions, and camouflaging and guarding them,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The Yars missiles currently constitute the main ground-based component of Russia’s strategic nuclear force.
The Mach 25 missiles have a range of up to 12,000 kilometers, making them possible to attack the US.
Yars is likely to be overtaken by Sarmat – or Satan-2, the largest missile in Putin’s nuclear arsenal, described as an “unstoppable” 208-ton intercontinental ballistic missile launched at 25,500 km/h from a silo the size of a 14-story apartment building.
In early August, Russian forces practiced placing dummy warheads on launchers in another series of publicly reported nuclear weapons exercises, intended to threaten the West over its support for Ukraine.
A Russian nuclear-capable Iskander-M missile fired from a mobile launcher, undated
Russian Armed Forces conduct exercises with a MiG-31 aircraft and missiles
The missiles can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads
The exercises are intended to prepare the army and air force for the use of nuclear weapons in combat.
Footage showed a military unit equipped with Iskander-M operational-tactical missile systems carrying out the third phase of exercises ordered by Vladimir Putin.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the exercises will prepare the army and air force for the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons in combat.
This involves equipping launch vehicles with missiles and ‘stealthily advancing to designated positions in preparation for carrying out electronic launches’.
And in July, Putin’s troops conducted nuclear exercises with huge Yars mobile rocket launcherseach with a warhead six times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
Naval forces conducted similar exercises, practicing “pushing the button” on a warship believed to be in the Baltic Sea.