Russia-Ukraine war: Moscow opens door to restarting banned nuclear tests

Since he invaded Ukraine last year, Putin has repeatedly reminded the West of Russia’s nuclear might.

On Wednesday state TV showed rare footage of him during a visit to Beijing being accompanied by naval officers carrying the so-called nuclear briefcase that can be used to order a nuclear strike.

Russia says it will not resume atomic testing unless Washington does, but arms control experts are concerned it may be inching towards a test that the West would perceive as a Russian nuclear escalation amid the Ukraine war.

They say a test by either Russia or the United States could prompt the other to do the same, and China, India and Pakistan might then follow, triggering a new global arms race. All are currently observing test moratoriums, and only North Korea has conducted a test involving a nuclear explosion this century.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to North Korea comes after their leader Kim Jong Un traveled to Russia in September, as the two countries build a closer relationship.

The White House said on Friday that North Korea has delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia for its ongoing war in Ukraine. Speculation about a possible North Korean plan to refill Russian munition stores drained by its protracted war with Ukraine flared during Kim’s visit to Russia. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. believes Kim is seeking sophisticated Russian weapons technologies in return for the munitions to boost North Korea’s military and nuclear program. Kim called last month for an exponential increase in production of nuclear weapons and for his country to play a larger role in a coalition of nations confronting the United States in a “new Cold War,” North Korean state media said.

Russia’s parliament has moved swiftly to fulfil the wish of President Vladimir Putin by completing the passage of a bill that shifts Moscow’s legal stance on nuclear testing at a time of acute tension with the West.

The lower house, the State Duma, on Wednesday passed the second and third readings of a bill that revokes Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Both were passed unanimously by 415 votes to zero.

Putin had urged the Duma on Oct. 5 to make the change in order to “mirror” the position of the United States, which has signed but never ratified the 1996 treaty.

“We understand our responsibility to our citizens, we are protecting our country. What is happening in the world today is the exclusive fault of the United States,” parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in North Korea on Wednesday, according to Russian state news agency Tass, the latest in a flurry of diplomatic activity between the two countries in which Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea in July and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveled to Russia in September.

Earlier in the week, Lavrov accompanied President Vladimir Putin on a visit to Beijing that underscored Chinese support for Moscow during its war in Ukraine.

Lavrov last visited North Korea in 2018. During his two-day visit he is to meet with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said.

Putin also accepted an invitation from Kim to visit North Korea, but the timing has not been announced.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Beijing, Mr Putin conceded that the ATACMS creates an additional threat but insisted the weapon will not change the situation along the 932-mile (1,500km) front line.

“For Ukraine, in this sense, there’s nothing good … it only prolongs the agony,” he said.

Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, described Washington’s decision to supply the ATACMS as “reckless” and “a grave mistake” that will not alter the war’s outcome.

The fighting has ground largely to a stalemate, with a protracted war of attrition expected at least through next year.

A Russian missile attack killed two civilians in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, local authorities said, as President Vladimir Putin dismissed the importance of a new US-supplied weapon that Kyiv used to execute one of the most damaging attacks on the Kremlin’s air assets since the start of the war.

Mr Putin told reporters that Russia “will be able to repel” further attacks by the US-made Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS.

Ukraine claimed it used those missiles to destroy nine Russian helicopters, as well as ammunition, an air defence system and other assets at two airfields in Russia-occupied regions on Tuesday.

The development came as the two sides sought to gain battlefield advantages and consolidate their positions ahead of the winter when the weather will hamper operations.

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has said that Russia was reinforcing its western border in anticipation of US-made F-16 fighter aircraft being supplied to Ukraine in 2024, the Russian state news agency RIA reported.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has posted images online of the latest training provided to the Ukrainian military.

A Russian strike killed one civilian and wounded three more on Wednesday in Ukraine‘s Dnipro region, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said.

Mr Lysak said on the Telegram messaging app that six private houses were damaged.