Russia “will not hesitate” to resume nuclear weapons testing if similar steps are taken by the United States, according to Sergei Ryabkov, the country’s deputy foreign minister.
According to Russia’s TASS news agency, Ryabkov made the comments during an interview with state-backed RT television network, though there are no indications the U.S. is planning new nuclear weapons tests.
The remarks came against the backdrop of renewed nuclear threats from senior Russian officials as the Kremlin seeks to discourage Western military support for Ukraine. Speaking at Russia’s Security Council on September 25, President Vladimir Putin hinted Moscow could respond with nuclear weapons to what it described as a “joint attack” from a non-nuclear-armed country backed by an ally with nuclear capability.
Speaking to RT, Ryabkov said that if Washington conducts new nuclear weapons tests “we will not hesitate” to respond in kind. Ryabkov was repeating a warning he made to Russian news agencies in September when he said Moscow would not initiate fresh nuclear tests unless the U.S. made the first move.
In his September remarks, Ryabkov insisted “nothing has changed” in Russia’s nuclear doctrine, adding: “As defined and formulated by the president of the Russian Federation, we can conduct such tests, but we will not conduct them if the United States refrains from such steps.”
The U.S. has not conducted any nuclear weapons tests since 1992 and there are no indications it plans to do so. Both Washington and Moscow signed, but did not ratify, the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty which prohibits any nuclear weapon detonations for testing purposes.
Newsweek contacted the Department of Defense press office and the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment on Saturday by email outside of regular office hours.
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Speaking to Newsweek Mark Galeotti, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said: “This notion that a non-nuclear state that is being supported and backed by a nuclear state could trigger a nuclear response is a pretty transparent way of saying, ‘If Ukraine launches some kind of major offensive in those circumstances, we reserve unto ourselves the right to be able to go nuclear in response.'”
Speaking at the U.N. Security Council on September 28, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Washington and London have “already prepared Europe to leap into a suicide venture,” highlighting what he called the “pointlessness and danger of the very idea to fight to victory with a nuclear power like Russia.”
In July, the U.S. announced it plans to deploy long-range missiles to Germany from 2026, including SM-6s, Tomahawks and developmental hypersonic weapons “which have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe.”
Russian forces have continued making slow and costly advances in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, and now control 98.8 percent of the Luhansk province as of October 3, according to Angelica Evans, a Russia researcher with the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War think tank.
