Putin Says Russia’s Nuclear Arsenal Is Near Fully Modernized
- Nuclear triad’s role ‘increased,’ Putin tells defense chiefs
- Russia has the ‘initiative’ in the war in Ukraine, Putin says
A Russian Air Force Tu-160 strategic bomber.
Photographer: Emmanuel Croset/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
President Vladimir Putin said Russia has modernized almost its entire strategic nuclear arsenal, reviving atomic rhetoric as he boasted the war in Ukraine has shifted in his favor.
The role of Russia’s air, sea and land nuclear triad in ensuring a balance of power “has increased significantly” amid the “emergence of new military-political risks,” Putin told a Defense Ministry meeting in Moscow on Tuesday. The proportion of modern weaponry in its nuclear forces this year “has been brought to 95% and in the naval component almost 100%,” he said.