Russia fires ballistic missiles to practice ‘massive nuclear strike’ in response

A latent nuclear threat. On Wednesday October 25, Russia carried out test firings of ballistic missiles aimed at preparing its forces for a “massive nuclear strike” of response, at a time when it is preparing to leave the treaty banning nuclear tests. Senior Russian officials have repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022. On other occasions, Vladimir Putin, for his part, wanted to be reassuring on this subject.

Russian nuclear doctrine provides for recourses “strictly defensive” with atomic weapons, in the event of an attack on Russia with weapons of mass destruction or in the event of aggression with conventional weapons “threatening the very existence of the State”.

Arms race

Wednesday’s exercises come public on the same day that Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, approved the revocation of ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. For Moscow, the abandonment of this treaty aims to “restore parity” strategic with the United States, which never ratified it.

This revocation raises fears of an intensification of the arms race. Russia, since the breakup of the USSR, has not carried out nuclear tests. The last, during the Soviet Union, dates back to 1990 and the last from the United States in 1992.