The war in Ukraine, unleashed by Russia, strengthened tension in relations between nuclear powers. So, today the risk of the use of nuclear weapons in the world has reached the highest level since the Cold War. Such data was published by the Stockholm International Institute for Research of Peace Problems (Sipri) in the annual “weapons” report.
according to Sipri, all the powers of the Nuclear Club – Russia, the USA, Great Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the DPRK intend to increase the number of warheads in the coming years and are modernizing nuclear arsenals.
“Despite the fact that last year significant successes have been achieved both in the field of control over nuclear weapons and in the field of nuclear disarmament, the risk of nuclear weapons now seems to be higher than ever since the flex of the Cold War,” – The director of the Institute Dan Smith noted in the Sipri report.
The director of the Sipri program for the study of weapons of mass destruction Wilfred Van said that all nuclear powers are building up or updating their arsenals.
“the majority of countries take more and more places of nuclear rhetoric and the role that nuclear weapons plays in their military strategies. And this is a very disturbing tendency,” he said.
According to Sipri expert Hans Kristensen, “there are obvious signs” that the process of reducing nuclear weapons that lasted since the end of the Cold War is completed.
as of January 2022, the leaders in the number of detailed nuclear warheads were:
• USA – 1744 (together with a margin – 3708);
• Russia – 1588 (4477);
• France – 280 (290);
• Great Britain (in 2021, the country refused to publish data on nuclear warheads) – 120 (180).
• Pakistan also has a nuclear margin – 165 warheads, India – 160, Israel – 90 and DPRK – 20.
According to Sipri, Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world – in total, it has 5977 nuclear warheads of various capacities, this is about 550 more than that of the United States. And together, the share of Russia and America accounts for more than 90% of all warheads in the world.
However, as Sipri notes, China is striving for them, which in the near future intends to put into operation about 300 new launch missile mines.
And although, according to Sipri, the total number of warheads from January 2021 to January 2022 decreased from 13080 to 12705, at least 2 thousand of them are constantly in a state of readiness.
As the Institute notes, the reduction of stocks is due to the fact that Russia and the United States removed outdated systems, and the number of ammunition suitable for use remains at the same level. However, Sipri expects that in the next decade, the arsenals will grow.