Nuclear Weapons Watch Thread

[wjfox]

Putin says Russia ‘will respond’ if UK supplies depleted uranium shells to Ukraine

Tue 21 Mar 2023 19.02 GMT

Vladimir Putin has sought to exploit a British statement that it would supply Ukraine with tank shells made with depleted uranium, arguing that the delivery of the armour-piercing weapons would prompt a Russian response.

The Russian leader’s comments, made during the visit to Moscow by his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, came in response to a parliamentary answer given by a junior British defence minister in the House of Lords on Monday.

Annabel Goldie said that the UK would supply “armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium” to Ukraine with its gift of 14 Challenger 2 tanks because they are deemed “highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armoured vehicles”.

The comments began to circulate on Russian social media channels on Tuesday, and the Russian leader chose to refer to them after a meeting with Xi. “If all this happens, Russian will have to respond accordingly, given that the west collectively is already beginning to use weapons with a nuclear component,” he said.

Putin did not elaborate, although the Russian leader frequently makes nuclear-related threats, largely in an effort to persuade western countries to limit their interventions in the war in Ukraine, which was started by Moscow’s invasion last year.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... to-ukraine

[weatheriscool]

Russia's security chief blasts West, dangles nuclear threats
Source: AP

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV2 hours ago

MOSCOW (AP) — A top Russian security official warned Thursday about the rising threat of a nuclear war and blasted a German minister for threatening Russian President Vladimir Putin with arrest, saying that such action would amount to a declaration of war and trigger a Russian strike on Germany.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council chaired by Putin, said in video remarks to reporters that Russia’s relations with the West have hit an all-time bottom.

Asked whether the threat of a nuclear conflict has eased, Medvedev responded: “No, it hasn’t decreased, it has grown. Every day when they provide Ukraine with foreign weapons brings the nuclear apocalypse closer.”

He has issued a barrage of such strongly-worded statements in the past, blasting the U.S. and its NATO allies for what he described as their efforts to break up and destroy Russia. It’s been a drastic metamorphosis for the gentle-looking politician, who once was hailed by the West as a liberal hope.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/medvedev-nuc ... 6f7939df33

[weatheriscool]

Putin says Moscow to station nuclear weapons in Belarus, first time since 1990s
Source: Reuters

March 25 (Reuters) - Russia will station tactical nuclear weapons in neighbouring Belarus, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday, marking the first time since the mid-1990s that Moscow will have based such arms outside the country.

Putin made the announcement at a time of growing tensions with the West over the Ukraine war and as some Russian commentators speculate about possible nuclear strikes.

Putin told state television that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had long raised the issue of stationing tactical nuclear weapons in his country, which borders NATO member Poland.

Putin did not specify when the weapons would be transferred to Belarus. "Tactical" nuclear weapons refer to those used for specific gains in the battlefield.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pu ... 023-03-25/

[caltrek]

Putin says Moscow to station nuclear weapons in Belarus, first time since 1990s
Source: Reuters
...

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pu ... 023-03-25/

Here is Alternet's take on the story:

Extract:

Reactions in the West were mixed. A US official who spoke to Reuters said that "we have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture nor any indications Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon. We remain committed to the collective defense of the NATO alliance."

But the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons expressed far graver concern.

"Putin has reportedly declared that Russia will deploy nuclear weapons to Belarus. ICAN condemns this extremely dangerous escalation which makes the use of nuclear weapons more likely," the organization tweeted. "In the context of the war in Ukraine, the likelihood of miscalculation or misinterpretation is extremely high. Sharing nuclear weapons makes the situation much worse and risks catastrophic humanitarian consequences.

This activity, hosting another country’s nuclear weapons, is prohibited under the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) which remains the only multilateral legal instrument to comprehensively ban any activity related to nuclear weapons. Any nuclear weapon use puts populations in grave danger and there is no humanitarian response mechanism in the world that can handle it. Countries that are serious about curbing the nuclear weapons threat must sign the TPNW to comprehensively condemn these weapons and, crucially, to make the use less likely."

Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/nuclear-hostag ... mir-putin/

[wjfox]

Bipartisan US Bill Aims to Prevent AI From Launching Nuclear Weapons

Apr 26, 2023

In the name of "protecting future generations from potentially devastating consequences," a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday introduced legislation meant to prevent artificial intelligence from launching nuclear weapons without meaningful human control.

The Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act—introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Don Beyer (D-Va.), and Ken Buck (R-Colo.)—asserts that "any decision to launch a nuclear weapon should not be made" by AI.

The proposed legislation acknowledges that the Pentagon's 2022 Nuclear Posture Review states that current U.S. policy is to "maintain a human 'in the loop' for all actions critical to informing and executing decisions by the president to initiate and terminate nuclear weapon employment."

The bill would codify that policy so that no federal funds could be used "to launch a nuclear weapon [or] select or engage targets for the purposes of launching" nukes.

"As we live in an increasingly digital age, we need to ensure that humans hold the power alone to command, control, and launch nuclear weapons—not robots," Markey asserted in a statement. "We need to keep humans in the loop on making life-or-death decisions to use deadly force, especially for our most dangerous weapons."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/artif ... ar-weapons

[wjfox]

Russia, Belarus sign document on deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus

25 May ,2023: 01:37 PM GST

Russia and Belarus signed a deal on Thursday to formalize the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear missiles on Belarusian territory, a step Moscow said was driven by rising tensions with the West.

“In the context of an extremely sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus, a decision was made to take countermeasures in the military-nuclear sphere,” TASS news agency quoted Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying.

The deployment of the missiles was first announced by President Vladimir Putin in March. Since invading Ukraine last year, Putin has said repeatedly that Russia would be ready to use nuclear weapons if needed to defend its “territorial integrity.”

NATO said at the time it did not see any need to adjust its own nuclear posture, though it said Putin’s nuclear rhetoric was “"dangerous and irresponsible.”

Ukraine said Russia’s ally Belarus had been “taken hostage” by Moscow.

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/worl ... in-Belarus

[wjfox]

Number of nuclear weapons held by major powers rising, says thinktank

Mon 12 Jun 2023 00.01 BST

The number of operational nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the major military powers is on the rise again according to a leading thinktank, whose analysts warn the world is “drifting into one of the most dangerous periods in human history”.

At a time of both deteriorating international relations and the escalation of nuclear sabre-rattling, there are now said to be an estimated 12,512 warheads globally, of which 9,576 are in military stockpiles ready for potential use, up 86 on a year ago.

The rise brings to an end the period of gradual decline that followed the end of the cold war. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) suggested 60 of the new warheads were held by China.

The other new weapons are attributed to Russia (12), Pakistan (five), North Korea (five) and India (four).

The increase in battle-fit warheads comes despite a statement in 2021 from the UN’s five permanent security council members – the US, Russia, China, the UK and France – that “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... -thinktank

[Time_Traveller]

- deleted -

[wjfox]

- deleted -

Please do not link to Natural News. It's a really, really poor quality site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_News

Thanks.

[Time_Traveller]

- deleted -

Please do not link to Natural News. It's a really, really poor quality site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_News

Thanks.

Okay no problem, didn't know they were.

[wjfox]

Russia prepares to revoke nuclear treaty after Putin announcement

Monday 9 October 2023 12:34, UK

Russian parliamentary bosses will today discuss revoking ratification of a treaty banning nuclear tests - a development that could trigger a new arms race between major world powers.

Vladimir Putin announced last Thursday that Russia could resume nuclear testing for the first time in more than three decades, after they stopped in the years after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

The Russian president said the country's nuclear doctrine - which dictates the conditions upon which he would press the nuclear button - did not need to change, but that he was not yet ready to say whether Moscow needed to resume nuclear tests.

He said Russia could look at revoking ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) as the United States had signed, but not ratified, it.

That prompted Russia's top lawmaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, to say he would discuss the matter at the next meeting of Russia's Duma Council - the key body in the Russian parliament organising its legislative work - which takes place at 2pm UK time today.

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war- ... t-12541713

[weatheriscool]

Russia is revoking ratification of nuclear test ban treaty - speaker
Source: Reuters

October 17, 2023 3:01 AM EDT

MOSCOW, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Russia is revoking ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty because of the irresponsible attitude of the United States to global security, the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament said on Tuesday.

President Vladimir Putin said on Oct. 5 that he was not ready to say whether or not Russia should resume nuclear testing after calls from some Russian security experts and lawmakers to test a nuclear bomb as a warning to the West. "In the interests of ensuring the security of our country, we are withdrawing the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty," Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said ahead of a debate and parliamentary vote on revoking ratification.

Volodin said that while Russia had ratified the 1996 treaty in 2000, Washington had failed to ratify because of its "irresponsible attitude to global security issues". "The Russian Federation will do everything to protect its citizens and to maintain global strategic parity," Volodin said. While Russia is revoking ratification, it would remain a signatory and would continue to cooperate with the test ban treaty organisation and the global monitoring system, which alerts the world to any nuclear test.

Russian officials say that the revocation of ratification does not mean Russia is going to test a nuclear bomb and that it is simply coming into line with the U.S. position, though arms control experts are concerned Russia could be inching towards a resumption of nuclear testing.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ru ... 023-10-17/

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

this should be posted to the timeline

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Biden, Xi set to pledge ban on AI in autonomous weapons like drones, nuclear warhead control: sources

– Potential dangers of AI expected to be major focus of Wednesday’s meeting on margins of Apec summit in San Francisco
– Keeping a ‘human in the loop’ in nuclear command and control is essential given the problems seen so far with AI, observer says

11 Nov, 2023

In a landmark agreement set to be announced at Wednesday’s much-awaited bilateral meeting, Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping are poised to pledge a ban on the use of artificial intelligence in autonomous weaponry, such as drones, and in the control and deployment of nuclear warheads, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to the Post.

The potential dangers of AI are expected to be a major focus of the US-China discussions, taking place on the sidelines of this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.

Both Washington and Beijing have expressed concerns over the unregulated use of this technology to fuel conflicts.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/militar ... ol-sources

[erowind]

.

[Powers]

It's imperative that both Russia and the US ratify the nuclear treaty immediately. There's no excuse to wait, if one country ratifies and the other does not later there is nothing binding the initial ratifying country to the treaty anylonger.

Wait until 2025.

[firestar464]

What's so special about that year?

[caltrek]

A Growing Middle Eastern Nightmare
November 19, 2023

Introduction:

(Tom Dispatch) Yes, on a radio show, Israeli Minister of Heritage Amihai Eliyahu insisted that there were “no non-combatants in Gaza” (assumedly including the thousands of young people slaughtered in recent weeks in that “children’s graveyard”). He then added that “one option” for Israel was to consider using a nuclear weapon and so wiping out more or less everyone left in that strip of land hardly bigger than two Washington, D.C.s. (Forget the radioactive fallout that would hit Israel as well.) And yes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly “suspended” him from regular cabinet meetings (even if that, as it turns out, wasn’t the most meaningful of actions).

It’s also true that Israel, one of the planet’s nine nuclear powers, has only — and given the nightmarish impact of such weaponry that has to be italicized — an estimated 90 such weapons, while the United States and Russia each have more than 5,000. Still, consider Eliyahu’s comment a rare admission by an Israeli official that his country is even nuclear armed. As Netanyahu himself typically said years ago, “We have a longstanding policy that we won’t be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.”

“Introduce” assumedly meaning to create a Middle Eastern version of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Consider it, in fact, little short of a miracle that, in the 78 years since August 9, 1945, when that second American atomic bomb devastated the Japanese city of Nagasaki, not another one has ever been used, even as such weaponry spread and arsenals grew. And let’s hope that, despite the carnage still underway in Gaza (and Hamas’s threats to launch more October 7ths until Israel is “annihilated”), this remains the case. Sadly enough, though,

As TomDispatch regular Joshua Frank, author of Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America, makes all too clear today, nuclear weapons aren’t the only way humanity has to create a hell on Earth.

Read more here: https://tomdispatch.com/the-dangers-only-multiply/