Putin says Russia could use nuclear weapons if it is threatened

June 6, 2024 — Voice of America News reports: “Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia could use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty is threatened.

‘If somebody’s actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible to use all means at our disposal,’ Putin said, citing what he said is his country’s security policy.

‘For some reason, they believe in the West that Russia will never use it,’ Putin told a group of international journalists, adding that Russia’s nuclear arsenal is much more powerful that what the U.S. used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during World War II.

The Russian leader spoke face-to-face at some length on the sidelines of the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum…”  (A huge nuclear war is prophesied multiplied times in God’s Word.  Revelation 9:14 – 18 depicts Armageddon: Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.  And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.  And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.  And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.  And Revelation 16:16 tells of the longest and final battle of the ages.  See the next four reports.)

Nuclear Weapon Drills Help Russia Prepare for Possible NATO Invasion

June 12, 2024 — Sputnik International reports: “The ongoing Russian tactical nuclear weapon drills, whose second phase began this week, is not some kind of act of showmanship, warns military analyst Igor Korotchenko, editor in chief of National Defense magazine.

The purpose of this exercise is to rehearse the ‘practical mechanisms’ of tactical nuclear weapon use if a decision to resort to such drastic measures were to be made.

This is not signaling someone, not some underscoring of some ‘red lines’ – this is about practice,’ Korotchenko tells Sputnik.

The various aspects of tactical nuclear weapon use being tested during this exercise include the delivery of presidential authorization to the troops, unlocking the warheads, flight data input and targeting – basically everything involved in an actual nuclear strike, he says…”

China’s nuclear stockpile is growing faster than any other nation

June 17, 2024 — SpaceWar.com reports: “China’s nuclear arsenal increased by nearly 100 warheads over the last year, according to a new report published Monday that warned it expects Beijing’s stockpile to keep growing at a faster rate than any other nation.

Beijing’s nuclear arsenal increased from 410 warheads to 500 over 2023, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said Monday in its annual report on international security.

The institute added that while China’s stockpile is expected to keep growing it may also be deploying a small number of warheads on missiles during peacetime.

China is modernizing and expanding its nuclear arsenal, and the report warned that though it will have a smaller stockpile of nuclear warheads than Russia or the United States by the end of the decade, it could possibly have as may intercontinental ballistic missiles as them by then.

‘China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country,’ Hans Kristensen, associate senior fellow with SIPRI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Program, said in a statement. ‘But in nearly all of the nuclear-armed states there are either plans or a significant push to increase nuclear forces.’

The report was published amid growing tensions in much of the world. Relations have continued fray between the West and China, and Russia’s war in Ukraine as well as Israel’s against Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza have raised worries about growing conflicts and about present conflicts turning nuclear.

According to the institute of the world’s estimated 12,121 warheads, more than 9,500 were in military stockpiles for potential use with an estimated 3,904 having been deployed as of January 2024, representing an increase in 60 from a year earlier…”

Report: North Korea Added 20 Nukes to Its Arsenal in 2023

June 18, 2024 — Breitbart.com reports: “North Korea is believed to possess 50 nuclear weapons – 20 more than in the past year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) revealed in its annual report published on Monday on global militaries.

SIPRI’s ‘Yearbook 2024 Armaments, Disarmament and International Security’ report assesses the known arsenals of nuclear states as well as global military development. It once again found that the vast majority of known nuclear weapons are in the possession of America and Russia, but that communist China is making significant efforts to expand and modernize its own arsenal. Notably, the report documented ‘the first time China is believed to have some warheads on high operational alert’ in 2024.

In its section on North Korea, SIPRI warned that evidence suggests communist dictator Kim Jong-un is ‘putting new emphasis’ on Pyongyang’s nuclear assets…”

Spending on nuclear weapons hit $91.4 billion in 2023, watchdog finds

June 18, 2024 — Voice of America News reports: “The world’s nine nuclear-armed states together spent $91.4 billion last year, or nearly $3,000 per second, as they ‘continue to modernize, and in some cases expand their arsenals,’ according to a report issued Monday by ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

‘This money is effectively being wasted given that the nuclear-armed states agree that a nuclear war can never be won and should never be fought,’ Alicia Sanders-Zakre, co-author of the report, told journalists in Geneva last week in advance of the report’s publication.

For example, she said, $91.4 billion a year ‘could pay for wind power for more than 12 million homes to combat climate change or cover 27 percent of the global funding gap to fight climate change, protect biodiversity and cut pollution.’

The report shows the nuclear-armed states spent $10.7 billion more on nuclear weapons in 2023 compared with 2022, with the United States accounting for 80% of that increase.

ICAN reports the United States spent $51.5 billion, ‘more than all the other nuclear-armed countries put together.’ It says the next biggest spender was China at $11.8 billion with Russia spending the third largest amount at $8.3 billion…”