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Euronews
a day ago
- Business
- Euronews
Nuclear weapons: Which country's arsenal is growing fastest?
The era of nuclear disarmament appears to have come to an end, experts at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) warned this week. Amid widespread global tensions and regional conflicts, researchers say the number of nuclear weapons appears to have gone up in the past 12 months. The nuclear weapon stockpile is now estimated at 9,614 available warheads - 0.3% more compared to 2024. The total is 12,241, including retired warheads. "By the end of 2024 nuclear disarmament appeared more elusive than at any point since the end of the Cold War", says SIPRI, "especially since strategic dialogue between Russia and the United States has effectively ceased". China's nuclear program is growing faster than any other country thanks to "significant modernisation and expansion work", the report says. Beijing is currently building new silos for its intercontinental ballistic missiles (IBM) in three large fields in the north of the country as well as in three mountainous areas in the central east. Since 2023, its arsenal has expanded by 100 new nukes per year, reaching 600 in 2025, making it the world's third-largest stockpile. However, the vast majority of China's warheads are thought to be stored separately from their launchers. By the end of the decade, the country, which is currently the world's second-largest military spender after the US, could have at least as many ICBMs as either Russia or Washington, although its stockpile is still expected to remain smaller than theirs. Tensions undermined dialogue between China and the US on nuclear-weapon-related issues due to the American support for Taiwan as well as economic sanctions against China. Russia and the US still hold almost 90% of all nuclear weapons. "Both states are implementing extensive modernisation programmes that could increase the size and diversity of their arsenals in the future." says SIPRI. "If no new agreement is reached to cap their stockpiles, the number of warheads they deploy on strategic missiles seems likely to increase after the bilateral 2010 Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START) expires in February 2026. In any case, SIPRI analysts say Russia's nuclear modernisation effort has endured a test failure and a further delay for the New Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile. Additionally, upgrades of other systems are progressing more slowly than anticipated. In the US, on the other hand, authorities are under pressure by nuclear advocates to keep up with China's new developments. The US could ramp up its capabilities by reactivating empty launchers, increasing its non-strategic nuclear weapons and deploying more warheads to existing launchers. In Europe, France has the largest nuclear arsenal, with 290 weapons - almost all of them are combat-ready. In 2024, Paris continued its development program of third-generation submarine-launched nuclear missiles as well as a new air-launched cruise missile. Like France, the UK has committed to scaling up its maritime nuclear abilities by building four new nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. Although the country is believed not to have increased its arsenal last year, which currently stands at 225 nukes, a few weeks ago the government announcednew investments in up to 12 new nuclear-powered submarines as part of the AUKUS programme. Authorities said that's "in response to the rapidly increasing threats". The investment is part of a £15 billion (€17.5bn) budget in the country's warhead programme. Larysa Hnatchenko has been at the helm of Slobidskyi Kray, the Kharkiv region's oldest newspaper, for more than 14 years. However, following the Trump administration's decision to slash 90% of USAID grants in January, she has been doing something she did not expect she would have to do, just to keep working. Hnatchenko has been dipping into her personal savings to ensure the publication's survival — using her money to pay salaries, office rent and fuel expenses. "On top of this all, we were already owed two months' money when they paused the funding," she told Euronews. While most of Slobidskyi Kray's team left Kharkiv in February 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion, they returned after the city's liberation, committed to continuing reporting. The team began organising the distribution of 3,000 newspapers each week — for free — to humanitarian hubs located in 20 communities across the Kharkiv region. "The goal of distributing the newspapers was not to generate a profit, but to ensure that people living in occupied territories and front-line regions got the news," Hnatchenko said. "It's impossible to offer a subscription service in these areas, because people don't know where they will be from one day to the next due to the constant shelling." "Many grandmothers would walk to humanitarian hubs by foot as they were determined to get the newspaper," added Hnatchenko. This has now come to a halt due to a lack of funds. US grants previously made up 50% of the Slobidskyi Kray's funding — while nine out of 10 local Ukrainian outlets were also heavily reliant on USAID. Hnatchenko fears that cuts to USAID are playing into the hands of the Kremlin, leaving many vulnerable individuals who are exposed to Russian disinformation, with no alternative news sources. "It's a real issue, we can no longer afford to deliver our newspapers to areas which have no electricity or access to Ukrainian news. Many occupied and frontline territories also do not have Ukrainian signal but instead Russian signal, which is a trap," said Hnatchenko. While Ukraine's media market has proven resilient, a report conducted by the media monitoring organisation Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) prior to the axing of USAID funding found that Ukrainian media outlets needed $96 million (€86.3 million) over a three-year period to cover their costs. 'There are no current figures on how many Ukrainian media outlets have had to close down since the end of USAID, but we know that more 330 outlets have had to shut down since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine,' Pauline Maufrais, Ukraine area manager for RSF, told Euronews. 'Russian propaganda outlets rejoiced in the end of USAID because it weakens the coverage from Ukrainian outlets especially in areas which are close to the front,' said Maufrais. In January, RSF published an investigation into the International Reporters outlet, which publishes Moscow's propaganda and sends its contributors — such as French citizen and naturalised Russian national Christelle Néant — to interview the local population in occupied eastern Ukraine, including Avdiivka and Mariupol. The International Reporters outlet is just one of the many Kremlin-funded propaganda networks, which use foreign propagandists to justify Russia's invasion of Ukraine internationally. "If there are fewer journalists in the Ukrainian media because there are not enough financial resources to pay them back, this means that less topics will be covered," said Maufrais. 'Since USAID cuts, media outlets are able to hire fewer freelancers, staffers have lost their jobs, but it also means that there is less coverage on the ground coming out from Ukraine." "Some outlets are running with only a few weeks of financing left, while others have said they can online survive until June," Maufrais added. Vgoru Media, based in Kherson — a city on the front lines of the war which was occupied by Russia for a period of nine months — previously relied on USAID to fund 80% of its projects. "We have had to cut big projects, such as our documentary telling the story of women who were kidnapped and tortured by Russia, as all the funding was from USAID," Ustyn Danchuk, head of video journalism at Gwara Media told Euronews. "We had already made 60% of the film when the cuts were implemented — but we hadn't even been paid for that work," he explained. Many Vgoru journalists left Kherson when it was under Russian occupation, fearing being captured and tortured. Since they have returned, they must live with the daily threat of missiles, as well as constant fear. For Danchuk, reporting and ensuring that locals don't fall for Russian disinformation is key. "I produce a video format where I walk around the streets of Kherson and ask people questions. What I have found is that young and middle-aged people want justice for Ukraine if the war is to end, they do not want swathes of the country to be handed over in exchange for peace," he explained. But this might not be enough, and the Kremlin's influence is still felt among the residents, Danchuk said. His outlet was also forced to cut a fact-checking video project countering Russian historical myths — one of the key tools in Moscow's propaganda arsenal. "I see that a lot of older people fall for the Russian narrative, many believe that 'we have to make peace with Russians, that every conflict ends and that we must be friends again.'" "We are continuing to try and tackle disinformation through our articles, but we are able to do a lot less without USAID," concluded Danchuk.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Nuclear weapons increasing as Russia-Ukraine war, Israel-Iran conflict reignites the prospects of World War III
As Russia and Ukraine continue to engage in a bloody and bruising war and the Middle East teeters on the edge of a disastrous conflict with nuclear undertones, the world is rapidly spiralling towards a potential World War III . Russia is the world's most heavily nuclear armed power while Israel, which has opened multiple fronts in the Middle East with the latest target being Iran, is a covert nuke state. Apart from Russia and Israel, there are seven other nuclear-armed countries - the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). According to a Stockholm International Peace Research Institute ( SIPRI ) report, all the nine nations have gone ahead with modernization of their nuclear program in 2024. Some of the countries have added a large number of nukes including upgrading of the existing weapons along with developing newer and more lethal versions. Nuclear warheads with each country The report states that in January 2025, there were an estimated 12,241 nuclear war heads in possession of the nine countries mentioned above with about 9,614 of them with the militaries for use. The nuclear armed countries had 3,912 nuclear weapons deployed for immediate use on their missiles and combat aircraft, while the remaining were stored away. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like NVDA: What's Next After the Selloff? Seeking Alpha Read Now Undo Russia and the US have the maximum number of deployed nuclear weapons. The SIPRI report claims that a small number of the deployed warheads may also belong to China. A total of about 2,100 warheads are mounted on missiles for immediate firing. While the world saw Russia and the US retiring and dismantling a large number of nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War in 1991, the trend seems to be reversing with new weapons being developed and deployed at a rapid pace which is likely to quicken in the coming years. Live Events World nuclear forces, January 2025 Deployed Stored Military Stockpile Retired Total USA 1 770 1 930 3 700 1 477 5 177 Russia 1 718 2 591 4 309 1 150 5 459 UK 120 105 225 - 225 France 280 10 290 - 290 China 24 576 600 - 600 India - 180 180 - 180 Pakistan - 170 170 - 170 North Korea - 50 50 - 50 Israel - 90 90 - 90 "The era of reductions in the number of nuclear weapons in the world, which had lasted since the end of the cold war, is coming to an end. Instead, we see a clear trend of growing nuclear arsenals, sharpened nuclear rhetoric and the abandonment of arms control agreements," noted Hans M. Kristensen, Associate Senior Fellow with SIPRI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme and Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). Russia and the US had in 2010 entered into the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START) which expires in February 2026. As the former in involved in a conflict with Ukraine and the US tied up behind the scenes in both the Europe and Middle East wars, the prospects of the treaty getting an extension or a new deal is extremely bleak. As part of their modernization program, both sides could rearm more missiles with multiple warheads as well as reactivate silos from which nukes were pulled out earlier. New non-strategic nuclear weapons by both and the development of new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) like Sarmat by Russia could result in increase in the nukes. China's nukes China's rapid development of nuclear weapons could force the US to adopt a tit-for-tat approach bring the memories of the Cold War era back. SIPRI estimates that China, the world's third largest nuclear power with 600 warheads, is growing its arsenal at rapid pace. . The country is estimated to have added 200 warheads since 2023. China has six major nuclear missile silos spread across the cold deserts in its north and mountains of the east with an estimated capacity of 350 ICBMs. Its pace of ICBM deployment is accelerating, and China could match Russia and the US in deploying nuke-armed missiles before the end of 2030. Painting a rather alarming picture, SIPRI reports that China can have 1,500 warheads by 2035, still only about one third of each of the current Russian and US nuclear stockpiles. Europe prepares for nuclear war Even since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, the United Kingdom and France have advocated for a larger nuclear weapon stockpile with the former also speaking about expanding its nuclear umbrella to the rest of Europe if the US decides to pull back as its President Donald Trump has said on multiple occasions. The UK's Integrated Review Refresh in 2023 speaks for increasing the number of warheads. The country may go for four more nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) along with maintaining the continuous at-sea nuclear deterrence, and delivering 'all the needed upgrades'. Similarly, France is going ahead with developing a third-generation SSBN and a new air-launched cruise missile. It is also upgrading its existing arsenal and delivery systems. India now has 180 nuclear warhead, at least 10 more than Pakistan. India is developing new canisterized missiles with Multiple Independently targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) capabilities. Pakistan, too, has been with China and North Korea's help modernizing its nuclear warheads. 'The combination of strikes on nuclear-related military infrastructure and third-party disinformation risked turning a conventional conflict into a nuclear crisis,' said Matt Korda, Associate Senior Researcher with SIPRI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme and Associate Director for the Nuclear Information Project at FAS. 'This should act as a stark warning for states seeking to increase their reliance on nuclear weapons.' North Korea has been developing its nuclear warheads as well as missiles with longer range to target the US mainland. The country is estimated to have 50 warheads with SIPRI reporting enough fissile material to produce up to 40 more nukes as well as on course to develop a tactical nuclear weapon. Israel has never admitted openly to having nuclear weapons but is likely to be in possession of 90 warheads. It is upgrading its plutonium production reactor site at Dimona while in 2024 the country also test-fired a missile propulsion system that could be related to its Jericho family of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles.
