There are no signs of unusual activity around Moscow’s nuclear arsenal following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest nuclear threats, a Western official said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

“We have not seen any signs or activity that would lead us to believe that this is anything out of the ordinary. We have not seen any activity that would go beyond the scope of activities carried out by these elements of the Russian strategic forces,” the official, who wished to remain anonymous, told reporters.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it did not want to be swayed by the nuclear rhetoric spread by Western powers and the media when asked about media reports that Russia was preparing to demonstrate its readiness to use nuclear weapons in its conflict with Ukraine.

The Kremlin’s reaction, voiced by Dmitry Peskov, came after The Times reported on Monday that NATO had warned its allies that President Vladimir Putin intended to conduct a nuclear test on Ukraine’s borders.

Moscow says it does not use nuclear rhetoric

Russia’s reported nuclear rhetoric is an obvious lie. Putin recently warned the West that he is not bluffing when he says he is ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.

Other top Putin allies, including former President Dmitry Medvedev, have suggested that Russia may have to resort to nuclear weapons. The sharpest message in this regard came from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, also a key figure of Vladimir Putin.

After Russia confirmed the loss of its positions in Liman, Kadyrov criticized the military command for its failures, writing in Telegram: “In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons.” .

USA: “We must take these threats very seriously”

Russia’s nuclear doctrine allows for a nuclear strike after “aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons, when the very existence of the state is threatened.”

Many Russians live in Ukrainian territory, which Putin has declared Russian, and breaking the nuclear taboo after World War II will not necessarily change the tactical situation in Ukraine.

“Now he is bluffing,” said Yuri Fedorov, a military analyst from Prague. “But what will happen in a week or a month, it’s hard to say – when he realizes that the war is lost,” he added. .

Asked if Putin was moving toward a nuclear attack, CIA Director William Burns said, “We have to take these threats very seriously, given everything that’s at stake.”

However, Burns said that US intelligence has “no practical evidence” that Putin is moving towards the imminent use of tactical nuclear weapons.

How many nuclear weapons do Russia and China have?

According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia is the largest nuclear power in the world in terms of the number of nuclear warheads: it has 5,977 nuclear warheads, while the United States has 5,428.

These numbers include stockpiled and scrapped warheads, but both Moscow and Washington have enough firepower to destroy the world many times over.

According to the most recently released figures, Russia has 1,458 deployed or ready-to-fire strategic nuclear warheads, while the United States has 1,389 deployed warheads. These warheads are on ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and strategic bombers.

Russia has approximately 10 times more tactical nuclear weapons than the United States. About half of America’s 200 tactical nuclear weapons are based in Europe.

US tactical nuclear weapons range in yield from 0.3 to 170 kilotons (the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was equivalent to about 15 kilotons of dynamite).

• Link: “We would withdraw all Russian troops from Ukraine and all their ships from the Black Sea.” The American general told how NATO will respond if Putin uses nuclear weapons