Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin orders nuclear weapons test preparations after Trump threat in new escalation
Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered preparations for nuclear testing after president Donald Trump said the US would be running tests last week.
“I am instructing the Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry, the special services and relevant civilian agencies to do everything possible to collect additional information on the issue, analyse it at the Security Council and make agreed proposals on the possible start of work on the preparation of nuclear weapons tests,” Putin said on Wednesday.
Defence minister Andrei Belousov told the Russian leader that remarks by the US made it “advisable to prepare for full-scale nuclear tests” immediately.
Last week, Donald Trump announced that the United States is to resume nuclear weapons testing “immediately”, raising fears of renewed proliferation between the world’s two biggest stockpiles of atomic weaponry.
Between them, Russia and the US maintain 87 per cent of the world’s total inventory of nuclear weapons.
