Russia’s military recently conducted a practice exercise involving a nuclear strike, overseen by President Vladimir Putin. This practice took place shortly after Russia’s parliamentary upper house voted to retract the nation’s endorsement of an international nuclear test ban agreement.

The decision to end Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which had been previously approved in the lower house, is now awaiting Putin’s final approval. Putin clarified that this move would be in accordance with the position taken by the United States, which had signed the nuclear test ban but had not completed the ratification process.

In the course of the exercise, Putin oversaw the proceedings through a video call, remotely guiding the operation alongside top military officials. Russia’s Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, explained that the aim of these drills was to be ready to counter a major nuclear strike with the country’s strategic offensive forces, should such a threat arise from an adversary.

It’s worth highlighting that comparable drills take place each autumn, but Shoigu’s comments were particularly noteworthy due to heightened tensions between Russia and the West, primarily stemming from the conflict in Ukraine.

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, established in 1996, prohibits all nuclear explosions worldwide. Nonetheless, the treaty has not been comprehensively put into effect, and numerous countries, such as the United States, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran, and Egypt, have not given their formal approval to it.

There are concerns that Russia might consider resuming nuclear tests as a deterrent to Western military support for Ukraine. While certain Russian officials have expressed their backing for restarting nuclear tests, President Putin has not definitively declared his position on this issue.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has emphasized that Moscow will continue to abide by the ban and will only consider resuming nuclear tests if the United States takes such action first. He also mentioned that Russia received U.S. proposals to engage in a dialogue on strategic stability and arms control. Nonetheless, he raised concerns about the feasibility of engaging in such a dialogue given the existing political context, underlining the necessity for a reevaluation of U.S. policies toward Russia before resuming talks.