Kremlin plays down claims that Russia is preparing a nuclear weapon test

• The Kremlin played down idea that Moscow was planning its own nuclear test
• US ambassador to Moscow claimed Russia was talking about testing weapons

The Kremlin on Friday played down the idea that Russia might be preparing to carry out a nuclear weapons test, saying all nuclear states were abiding by a moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons.

It was responding to an interview given by Lynne Tracy, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, who told the Kommersant newspaper that Russia was the only country talking about the possible resumption of nuclear testing.

President Vladimir Putin said in February, without citing evidence, that some in Washington were considering breaking a moratorium on nuclear testing and that Russia should be ready to act in kind.

‘If the United States conducts tests, then we will. No one should have dangerous illusions that global strategic parity can be destroyed,’ Putin said.

When asked about Tracy’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov played down the idea that Moscow was planning its own nuclear test.

The Kremlin on Friday played down the idea that Russia might be preparing to carry out a nuclear weapons test, saying all nuclear states were abiding by a moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons. Pictured: A Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile is seen being test-launched last year, in a photo released by Russia

President Vladimir Putin said in February, without citing evidence, that some in Washington were considering breaking a moratorium on nuclear testing and that Russia should be ready to act in kind

‘At the moment everyone is sticking to the moratorium. There is nothing more to say here,’ he told reporters.

Nuclear tensions between Russia and the United States have increased since the start of the conflict with Ukraine with Putin repeatedly warning that Russia is ready to use its nuclear arsenal if necessary to defend its ‘territorial integrity’.

READ MORE: Can Russia REALLY wipe out Britain with a ‘1,000ft-high tsunami’? Experts say Putin’s Poseidon nuke COULD destroy a coastal city and kill millions in London 

 

Indeed, Russia’s foreign ministry today criticised a nuclear agreement between the US and South Korea, claiming it would destabilise the region and the wider world. 

The United States on Wednesday pledged to give South Korea more insight into its nuclear planning, while Seoul promised not to seek nuclear weapons itself in an agreement both sides said was aimed against North Korea.

Russia has repeatedly railed against what it sees as the United States’ growing military presence across Asia.

 ‘This development is clearly destabilising in nature and will have serious negative consequences for regional security, impacting on global stability,’ Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Moscow said the United States and NATO’s drive for ‘decisive military superiority’ would ‘bring nothing but escalating tensions’ and could ‘provoke an arms race’. 

Washington has accused Moscow of nuclear sabre-rattling over various statements from Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, since the start of the Ukraine war that Russia would be prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend its ‘territorial integrity’.

And in February, Putin announced Russia was suspending its participation in the New START treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms pact with the United States, which limits the number of strategic warheads each side can deploy.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the decision ‘deeply unfortunate and irresponsible.’

It comes as Russia informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog that equipment spotted at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Russia controls, will be used to fix a power transmission line that leads to Russian-held territory, the watchdog said on Friday.

The planned restoration of the downed power line could heighten Ukrainian fears that Russia is preparing to connect Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, to the power grid of territory that it controls.

A motorcade transporting the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expert mission, escorted by the Russian military, arrives at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine on March 29

A small number of International Atomic Energy Agency officials are present at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which is operated by Ukrainian staff working under the orders of Russian forces and the Russian nuclear company Rosatom.

‘The (IAEA) Team observed, and following questions were subsequently informed, that a large piece of equipment being transported into the turbine hall of Unit 3 was a transformer to replace the damaged ‘Kakhovka’ node in the ZNPP open switchyard,’ the IAEA said in a statement.

‘The Kakhovka line is one of the four 750 kV (kilovolt) lines that were operational before the military conflict. This line is linked to the currently Russian-controlled electrical grid, to the south of the ZNPP site,’ it added.

Only one of those four power lines is currently working and is the only source of external power to the plant, which it needs to keep cooling the fuel in its six reactors even though they are shut down. 

Failing to cool that fuel could lead to a potentially catastrophic nuclear meltdown.

The IAEA said it also had not had access to the switchyard at a nearby thermal power plant (TPP) that can supply backup power to Zaporizhzhia. The IAEA last visited that switchyard in December, when damage from shelling was observed.

‘Two weeks ago the team was informed that access would be granted in the coming days. It is important that ISAMZ (the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhia) gets the necessary access to the ZTPP open switchyard given the implications on nuclear safety and security at ZNPP.’

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