Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country has modernized almost its entire strategic nuclear arsenal, reviving atomic rhetoric as he boasted the war in Ukraine has shifted in his favor.
The role of Russia’s air, sea and land nuclear triad in ensuring a balance of power "has increased significantly” amid the "emergence of new military-political risks,” Putin told a Defense Ministry meeting in Moscow on Tuesday. The proportion of modern weaponry in its nuclear forces this year "has been brought to 95% and in the naval component almost 100%,” he said.
In a speech laced with familiar claims that he ordered the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine to counter alleged threats to Russia’s security from the U.S. and its NATO allies, Putin said his forces "have the initiative” on the battlefield.