The global number of operational nuclear warheads will increase in 2022, driven mainly by Russia and China, a new report out Wednesday said, as nuclear tensions rise since the war in Ukraine.
The nine official and unofficial nuclear powers hold 9,576 warheads ready for use in 2023 – up from 9,440 the previous year, according to the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Monitor published by the Norwegian NGO People’s Aid.
The weapon has a “collective destructive power” equivalent to “more than 135,000 Hiroshima bombs,” the report said.
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Conducted in collaboration with the Federation of American Scientists, the study was published as Moscow has repeatedly raised nuclear threats in connection with the invasion of Ukraine and Western military aid to Eastern European countries.
nuclear weapons
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had agreed with Minsk to deploy “tactical” nuclear weapons in Belarus, a country on the EU’s doorstep.
“The United States has been doing this for decades. They have been placing tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of allies for a long time,” Putin said in a televised interview.
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According to estimates by various independent observers, the United States has deployed about 100 so-called “tactical” nuclear weapons – indicating shorter range or less power – in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey over the years.
Russia’s announcement was sharply criticized by Ukraine and its Western allies, with NATO denouncing it as “dangerous and irresponsible” and the European Union threatening Minsk with further sanctions if the deployment continues.
An additional 136 warheads in the global ready-to-use nuclear stockpile last year were attributed to Russia, which has the world’s largest arsenal with 5,889 operational warheads, as well as China, India, North Korea and Pakistan.
“This increase is worrying, and continues the trend that started in 2017,” said Grethe Lauglo Ostern, editor of the Monitor for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
– Low stock –
Away from the spotlight of the conflict in Ukraine, North Korea has conducted tests with ballistic missiles, which could increase its capacity to carry out a nuclear attack.
In an extremely tense geopolitical situation, fears of these destructive weapons are now at their highest level since the end of the Cold War, according to opinion polls in several countries.
At the same time, the total stockpile of nuclear weapons, which also includes those removed from service, continues to decline.
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By 2022, the number of nuclear weapons will drop from 12,705 to 12,512.
“This is still true only because Russia and the United States every year dismantle some old nuclear warheads that have been retired from service,” said Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.
Ostern warned that if the trend of new warheads being added does not stop, “the total number of nuclear weapons in the world will also increase again for the first time since the Cold War.”
At its peak in 1986, there were more than 70,000 nuclear weapons in the world, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
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The eight official nuclear powers are the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, China, France, India, North Korea and Pakistan, while Israel is known to possess nuclear weapons unofficially.