The Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Friday rejected allegations of “treason” over plans for several of the far-right party’s lawmakers to visit Russia next week.
The trip has attracted severe criticism from conservative German politicians due to Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Martin Huber, general secretary of the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union (CSU), called the move “treason” and described the party as “Moscow’s mouthpiece.”
“Anyone who allows Putin’s henchmen to dictate their policies is not a patriot, but a puppet and a risk to our country,” he added in comments to the Handelsblatt business newspaper.
But senior AfD figure Bernd Baumann compared the situation to visits by German conservative politicians to Moscow in 1987, during the Soviet Union’s war with Afghanistan.
He also emphasized that the AfD parliamentary group has unanimously passed a resolution condemning Russia’s attack on Ukraine “unequivocally as a war of aggression contrary to international law.”
The AfD delegation includes two lawmakers in the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, as well as one regional politician and a European Parliament lawmaker.
The group is reportedly travelling to Russia to attend a “BRICS Europe Symposium” with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev listed among the speakers.
The BRICS countries include founding members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, along with additional nations.
The AfD, an anti-immigrant party that opposes the sanctions slapped on Moscow over the war in Ukraine, has repeatedly made headlines with its Russia-friendly positions.
(Reuters) -The United States fully backs the European Union using frozen Russian assets as a tool to support Ukraine and end the war with Russia, a U.S. source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Friday.
As the West seeks to ramp up pressure on Moscow, the European Commission has proposed a plan allowing EU governments to use up to 185 billion euros ($217 billion) – most of the 210 billion euros worth of Russian sovereign assets currently frozen in Europe – without confiscating them.
Washington “absolutely supports (the EU) and the steps they’re taking right now to be in a position to make use of those assets as a tool,” the source said, requesting anonymity to discuss an ongoing issue.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the United States and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry, immobilizing around $300 billion of sovereign Russian assets.
The European proposal is being held up due to concerns from Belgium, where most of the assets are located.
Germany suggested on Friday that recent drone sightings over airports and military bases in Belgium were a message from Moscow not to touch the frozen assets. Moscow has denied any connection to the incidents and has promised a “painful response” if its assets are seized.
In a renewed attempt to end Russia’s war, U.S. President Donald Trump hit Rosneft and Lukoil, its two biggest oil companies, with sanctions late last month, adding to an unprecedented basket of economic sanctions that seek to pressure Moscow and those doing business with it.
The move underlined Washington’s intent to squeeze Russia’s finances and force the Kremlin towards a peace deal in its 3-1/2-year-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Washington is watching the fallout from the Rosneft and Lukoil move and “there are more things we could do to try to up the pressure,” the source said.
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
KYIV (Reuters) -More than 1,400 citizens from three dozen African countries are fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, Kyiv’s foreign minister said on Friday.
Ukrainian officials say Russia has tried to bolster the force attacking its smaller neighbour by recruiting fighters from a variety of countries, sometimes through subterfuge.
Andriy Sybiha said Russia was enticing Africans to sign contracts that he described as “equivalent to … a death sentence”, and urged African governments to warn their citizens.
“Foreign citizens in the Russian army have a sad fate,” he wrote on X. “Most of them are immediately sent to the so-called ‘meat assaults’, where they are quickly killed.”
South Africa said on Thursday it would investigate how 17 of its citizens joined mercenary forces after the men sent distress calls for help to return home.
And Kenya said last month that some of its citizens had been detained in military camps across Russia after unknowingly getting caught up in the conflict.
Sybiha said the total number of African recruits could be higher than the 1,436 identified, originating from 36 countries, and that most foreign mercenaries in Ukrainian custody had been captured during their first combat mission.
He said Ukraine would provide more specific information about the countries and regions from which Russia has recruited troops.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union has adopted stricter visa rules for Russian nationals in light of what it calls the “weaponisation of migration, acts of sabotage and potential misuse of visas”.
Russian nationals will no longer be eligible for multiple-entry visas and must apply for a new visa each time they travel to the EU, a statement from the European Commission read. It said the aim was to protect public policy and security.
There will be limited exceptions for dissidents, independent journalists and human rights defenders.
“Starting a war and expecting to move freely in Europe is hard to justify,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X.
“The EU is tightening visa rules for Russian nationals amid continued drone disruptions and sabotage on European soil. Travelling to the EU is a privilege, not a given.”
(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Gunvor pulled its offer to buy the international assets of sanctioned Russian oil producer Lukoil after the U.S. Treasury Department said it opposed the deal and called the Swiss commodities trader the “Kremlin’s puppet.”
The move signals the Trump administration is taking a hard-line approach in its recently launched effort to use economic pressure on Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.
BERLIN (Reuters) -Russia must never come to the assumption that it can win a war against NATO or one of the alliance’s members, Germany’s Chief of Defence Carsten Breuer warned in a speech to the country’s top military brass in Berlin on Friday.
“We need to look into the lessons learned from the war in Ukraine, adapt them for ourselves and develop our own concepts and structures accordingly because the war in Ukraine is our teacher,” Breuer said, adding that Moscow expected a quick win when it invaded its neighbour in 2022.
“We must prevent Russia from another miscalculation like this. Russia must never come to the assumption that it can win a war against NATO or a single NATO country.”
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Editing by Miranda Murray)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Belgium’s Liege airport temporarily halted flights due to drone sighting, the second such incident this week, national news agency Belga said on Friday citing the skeyes air traffic control service.
Drones spotted flying over airports in the capital Brussels and in Liege, in the country’s east, forced on Tuesday the diversion of many incoming planes and the grounding of some due to depart.
Sightings of drones over airports and military bases have become a constant in Belgium in recent days, and have caused major disruptions across Europe in recent months.
They have forced temporary closures of airports in several countries including Sweden on Thursday. Some officials have blamed the incidents on “hybrid warfare” by Russia. Moscow has denied any connection with the incidents.
The Belgian government called an emergency meeting of key government ministers and security chiefs on Thursday to address what the defence minister called a coordinated attack
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi, editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed his government to submit proposals on the possible resumption of nuclear weapons testing in response to President Trump instructing the Pentagon to do so “on an equal basis” with other countries.
In a meeting Wednesday with his Security Council, Putin said Russia has adhered to the international Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which prohibits nuclear test explosions.
But, he said, “if the United States or any other state party to the Treaty was to conduct such tests, Russia would be under obligation to take reciprocal measures.”
Mr. Trump claimed in an interview with 60 Minutes that Russia is among a handful of countries testing nuclear weapons when asked about his order.
“Russia’s testing, and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it,” Mr. Trump told CBS News correspondent Norah O’Donnell. “We’re gonna test, because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea’s been testing. Pakistan’s been testing.”
It is unclear what type of testing Mr. Trump is ordering. The last time the U.S. detonated a nuclear device as part of a test was in 1992.
“No one knows what Trump meant about ‘nuclear testing’ (he probably doesn’t himself),” Dmirty Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, wrote in a post on social media Wednesday.
“But he’s the president of the United States,” his post continued. “And the consequences of such words are inescapable: Russia will be forced to assess the expediency of conducting full-fledged nuclear tests itself.”
China was the first of the nations accused by Mr. Trump to deny any secret nuclear testing. A Pakistani official told CBS News that the country “will not be the first to resume nuclear tests.”
Mr. Trump made the assertion to O’Donnell just days after the president’s own nominee to lead STRATCOM — the U.S. military command in charge of nuclear weapons — told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that neither China nor Russia were conducting nuclear explosive tests.
North Korea is the only nation known to have conducted a nuclear detonation since the 1990s. Russia’s last known nuclear explosive test was in 1990, and China’s was in 1996.
The U.S. is among almost 180 nations that have signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
Along with China and several other nuclear powers, however, the U.S. has never ratified the treaty, a situation that Putin highlighted in 2023 when he decided to revoke Moscow’s ratification.
While Russia has stepped up its own tests of nuclear-capable and even nuclear-powered weapons systems, it has not announced any resumption of nuclear test detonations.
Putin’s revocation of Russia’s CTBT ratification exactly two years ago fueled speculation that he could order new nuclear detonation tests, along with calls from hawkish members of the Russian parliament for the country to do so. Putin previously suggested that Russia would resume nuclear explosive tests if the U.S. were to do so first.
One year ago, Putin approved changes to Russia’s official nuclear doctrine, formally amending the conditions — and lowering the threshold — under which Moscow would consider using its nuclear weapons.
The updated doctrine, which was announced just as Ukraine launched its first strike deeper into Russia with U.S.-supplied missiles, states that Russia will treat an attack by a non-nuclear state that is supported by a country with nuclear capabilities as a joint attack by both.
That means in theory that any attack on Russia by a country that’s part of a coalition could be seen as an attack by the entire group. Under the doctrine, Russia could theoretically consider any major attack on its territory, even with conventional weapons, by non-nuclear-armed Ukraine sufficient to trigger a nuclear response, because Ukraine is backed by the nuclear-armed United States.
Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine multiple times since he ordered the full-scale invasion of the country on Feb. 24, 2022, and Russia has repeatedly warned the West that if Washington allowed Ukraine to fire Western-made missiles deep into its territory, it would consider the U.S. and its NATO allies to be directly involved in the war.
Mr. Trump has so far declined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s repeated requests for U.S.-made Tomahawk long-range missiles.
What does Trump mean by U.S. resuming nuclear tests?
Mr. Trump has not been clear about whether his stated plan to have the U.S. military test its nuclear arsenal includes conducting actual atomic explosions, which have not been carried out in the U.S. for over 30 years, or just expanded testing of the weapons systems used to deliver nuclear warheads.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, downplayed the notion on Sunday that the U.S. was about to start setting off nuclear explosions. “I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests. These are not nuclear explosions,” Wright told Fox News. “These are what we call ‘non-critical explosions,’ so you’re testing all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry and they set up the nuclear explosion.”
Russian President
Vladimir Putin ordered his top security officials to draw up plans for potential nuclear weapons testing should President Trump follow through on his suggestions that the U.S. resume testing its nuclear arsenal, in a fresh sign of the faltering relationship between the two leaders.
While the threats from each side are likely still tools for political signaling at this stage, if either Washington or Moscow pushes ahead with testing it would raise nuclear tensions to levels unseen since the peak of the Cold War.
On her first day of work, Adau realised she had made a big mistake.
“We got our uniforms, not even knowing exactly what we were going to do. From the first day of work we were taken to the drones factory. We stepped in and we saw drones everywhere and people working. Then they took us to our different work stations.”
Twenty-three-years-old and originally from South Sudan, Adau says last year she was lured to the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, on the promise of a full-time job.
She had applied to the Alabuga Start programme, a recruitment scheme targeting 18-to-22-year-old women, mostly from Africa but also increasingly from Latin America and South-East Asia. It promises participants professional training in areas including logistics, catering and hospitality.
But the programme has been accused of using deception in its recruitment practices, and of making its young recruits work in dangerous conditions for less pay than advertised. It denies all these allegations but did not deny that some employees were helping to build drones.
The Alabuga Start programme (AS) recently made global headlines when South African influencers advertising the programme were accused of promoting human trafficking. The BBC reached out to the implicated influencers and the promoter responsible for connecting them to the programme but none responded to our requests.
Adau has asked the BBC not to use her surname or picture as she does not want to be associated with the programme. She says she first heard about it in 2023.
“My friend posted about a scholarship in Russia on their Facebook status. The advert was by the South Sudanese Ministry of Higher Education,” she says.
Adau signed up after seeing this official advert sponsored by Russia [Supplied to the BBC]
She reached out to the organisers through WhatsApp.
“They asked me to fill out a form with my name, age and why I wanted to join Alabuga. And then they also asked me to pick three fields I wanted to work in.”
Adau says she picked being a tower-crane operator as her first choice. She had always been into technology and had even travelled abroad once to take part in a robotics competition.
“I wanted to work in fields that are not normally done by women. It is very hard for a woman to come across fields like tower-crane operation, especially within my country.”
The application took a year because of the lengthy visa process.
Adau’s ticket to Tartastan [Supplied to the BBC]
In March last year, she finally made it to Russia.
“When I first got there it was very cold, I hated it. We travelled towards the end of winter. The second we stepped out of the airport, it was freezing cold.”
But driving into the Alabuga Special Zone left her with a good first impression.
“I was very impressed. It was everything that I thought it was [going to be]. I saw a lot of factories, cars and agricultural companies.”
Adau had three months of language classes before starting work in July. That was when things started to go downhill.
She says she and the other participants were not given a choice as to whether to work in the drone factory. They had signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) so could not even discuss their work with their families.
“We all had a lot of questions. We had all signed up to work in technical fields -production operation, logistics, tower-crane operator – but we all ended up working in the drone factory.”
Alabuga denies using deception to recruit workers. “All the fields in which our participants work are listed on our website,” it said in response to our questions.
The workers were not allowed to take pictures inside the facility, but the BBC showed Adau footage broadcast on Russian state-owned TV station RT of a factory in Alabuga making Iranian Shahed 136 drones. She confirmed to us that this was where she worked.
“The reality of the Alabuga Special Economic Zone is that it’s a war production facility,” says Spencer Faragasso from the Institute For Science And International Security.
“Russia has openly admitted that they are producing and building Shahed 136 drones there in videos that they released publicly. They boast about the site. They boast about its accomplishments.”
Spencer says that like Adau, many of the women they interviewed who worked in the programme said they had no idea they would be building weapons.
“On the surface, this is an amazing opportunity for many of these women to see the world, to gain work experience and to earn a living wage. But, in reality, when they’re brought to Alabuga, they have a harsh awakening that these promises are not kept, and the reality of their work is far different from what they’re promised.”
Adau says she knew straight away that she could not keep working at the factory.
“It all started clicking: all the lies that we have been told since the time of application. I felt like I couldn’t work around people who are lying to me about those things. And I wanted to do more with my life than work in a drone factory.”
She handed in her notice but was told the notice period was two weeks, during which she had to work. During that time she painted the outer casing of the drones with chemicals she said burned her skin.
“When I got home I checked my skin and it was peeling. We wore protective gear, white cloth overalls, but the chemicals would still pass through them. They would make the fabric stiff.”
Alabuga says that all staff are provided with the necessary protective clothing.
The chemicals burns on the arm of Adau’s colleague [Supplied to the BBC]
And that was not the only danger. On 2 April 2024, just two weeks after Adau arrived in Russia, the Alabuga Special Economic Zone was targeted by a Ukrainian drone strike.
“That day I woke up to our fire alarm, but this one was unusual. The windows on the upper floor of our hostel were shattered, and some of the girls had woken up to an explosion. So we went outside.”
As they started walking away from their hostel in the cold morning air, Adau said she noticed others starting to run.
“I see some people pointing up, so I look up to the sky, and I see a drone coming through the sky. That’s when I started running as well. I ran so fast I left the people who ran before me behind.”
Photos taken by Adau on the day of the Ukrainian drone strike [Supplied to the BBC]
“The drone struck down the hostel right next to ours. It completely shattered that building and our building was also damaged.”
Months later, when she found out she had been working in a drone factory, she thought back to the attack and realised that was why they had been targeted.
“Ukraine knew that the African girls who had come to work in the drone factories, lived in that hostel that was struck down. It was in the news. When Ukraine was accused of hitting civilian houses, they said: ‘No, those are workers working in drone factories.'”
A few women left without notifying the programme after the drone attack, prompting the organisers to seize the workers’ passports for a while.
When asked why the hostel attack and existing reports about Alabuga being at the centre of Russia’s drone production had not raised her suspicions, Adau said she had been repeatedly assured by staff that recruits would only work in the fields they had signed up for.
“The allegations that we would be building drones felt to me like anti-Russian propaganda,” she explained.
“There is a lot of fake news when it comes to Russia, trying to make Russia look bad. The Special Economic Zone used to have people working there from Europe and America, but they all left after the Ukraine-Russia war because of the sanctions on Russia. So when Russia started looking for Africans to work there, it felt like they were just trying to fill up the spots the Europeans left.”
After Adau handed in her notice, her family sent her a ticket home, but she says many women cannot afford to pay for a return flight and end up stuck there – particularly because their pay is much lower than advertised. Adau was meant to earn $600 (£450) per month, but only got a sixth of that.
“They deducted money for our rent, for our Russian classes, for the Wi-Fi, for our transport to work, for taxes. And then they also said that if we skipped a day of work, they’d deduct $50. If we set off the fire alarm whilst cooking, they’d deduct $60. If we didn’t hand in our Russian language homework, or if we skipped class, they’d deduct from your salary.”
The Alabuga Start programme told the BBC that salaries partly depended on performance and behaviour in the workplace.
We spoke to another woman on the programme who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals on social media. She says she had a more positive experience at Alabuga.
“To be honest every company has rules. How can they pay you your full salary if you miss work, or don’t perform well? Everything is logical, no-one is subjected to what they do not want. Most of the girls who end up leaving missed work and didn’t follow the rules. Alabuga doesn’t hold anyone hostage, you can leave at any time,” the unnamed woman told the BBC.
But Adau says working for Russia’s war machine was devastating.
“It felt terrible. There was a time when I got back to my hostel and I cried. I thought to myself: ‘I can’t believe this is what I’m doing now.’ It felt horrible having a hand in constructing something that is taking so many lives.”
You may also be interested in:
[Getty Images/BBC]
Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.
When Russian soldier Sergey Khandozhko got married the day after enlisting in October 2023, his family and friends were confused. The 40-year-old had never mentioned the bride. Nor had he spoken of marriage.
More puzzling was the 20-minute wedding ceremony without photos or exchange of rings, and only one guest. Afterward, Khandozhko’s new wife even carried on living with her ex-husband and their children, according to testimony and a court ruling reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
MILAN (Reuters) -A Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines has begun a hunger strike, demanding respect for his fundamental rights in prison, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
An Italian appeals court in Bologna last month ordered that the suspect, identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, should be transferred to Germany, confirming a previous ruling that it had issued last month.
However, the former Ukrainian officer is currently held in an Italian high-security prison pending a further hearing at the Court of Cassation, the top court, which is expected to take place within about a month.
“Since October 31, SK has been refusing food to demand respect for his fundamental rights,” his lawyer Nicola Canestrini said in a statement.
The Ukrainian is demanding adequate nutrition, a healthy environment, dignified detention conditions and “equal treatment with other inmates regarding family visits and access to information,”, Canestrini added.
The lawyer called for urgent intervention by the prison administration and the Italian Ministry of Justice “to ensure conditions consistent with constitutional and international standards”.
The justice ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Serhii K was arrested in August near the Italian town of Rimini on a European investigation and arrest warrant issued by Germany in connection with the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
In a hearing in September, Canestrini said his client denied any involvement in the attacks.
The explosions largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe, prompting a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy supplies on the continent. No one has taken responsibility for the blasts and Ukraine has denied any role.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi. Writing by Cristina Carlevaro. Editing by Mark Potter)
VILNIUS (Reuters) -Lithuania is in talks with German defence conglomerate Rheinmetall for a second investment project, a Lithuanian presidential advisor said on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, writing by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik)
Walter Russell Mead is the Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship at Hudson Institute, the Global View Columnist at The Wall Street Journal and the Alexander Hamilton Professor of Strategy and Statecraft with the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida.
He is also a member of Aspen Institute Italy and board member of Aspenia. Before joining Hudson, Mr. Mead was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations as the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy. He has authored numerous books, including the widely-recognized Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World (Alfred A. Knopf, 2004). Mr. Mead’s most recent book is entitled The Arc of A Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People.
(Reuters) -An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck the east coast of Russia’s Kamchatka region on Monday, the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) said.The quake was at a depth of 28 km (17.4 miles), GFZ said.
(Reuters) -Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin departed for a two-day visit to China on Monday, which the Kremlin says is significant, including planned talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Russian government and state media said.
Mishustin is scheduled for a regular heads of government meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in the city of Hangzhou on Monday, and will travel to Beijing on Tuesday for talks with Xi, TASS agency reported, citing the Russian government’s press service.
The Kremlin attached ‘very great’ importance to the visit, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, while declining to say whether President Vladimir Putin would send a message to Xi via Mishustin, Interfax agency reported.
Putin and Xi signed a ‘no limits’ partnership in February 2022, just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since then, Moscow has turned to Beijing to mitigate the impact of Western sanctions, highlighting record bilateral trade, increased settlements in yuan and deepening energy cooperation.
U.S.–China friction over trade and technology under U.S President Donald Trump, which strained relations between Washington and Beijing, have also encouraged both Moscow and Beijing to strengthen cross-border commerce to counter Western pressure.
Mishustin’s talks in China were expected to focus on trade and economic ties, transport and industrial cooperation, enhanced energy partnerships and expanded collaboration in advanced technology and agriculture, TASS reported.
On Sunday, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko and China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng chaired a commission meeting in Ningbo that flagged growth in copper and nickel exports and wider farm-goods access, the Russian government said on its Telegram channel.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that, for now, he is not considering a deal that would allow Ukraine to obtain long-range Tomahawk missiles for use against Russia.
Trump has been cool to a plan for the United States to sell Tomahawks to NATO nations that would transfer them to Ukraine, saying he does not want to escalate the war.
His latest comments to reporters aboard Air Force One indicate that he remains reluctant.
“No, not really,” Trump told reporters as he flew to Washington from Palm Beach, Florida, when asked whether he was considering a deal to sell the missiles. He added, however, that he could change his mind.
Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte discussed the Tomahawk idea when they met at the White House on October 22. Rutte said on Friday that the issue was under review and that it was up to the United States to decide.
Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles), long enough to strike deep inside Russia, including Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has requested the missiles, but the Kremlin has warned against any provision of Tomahawks to Ukraine.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Jasper Ward and Alexandra Alper; Editing by Edmund Klamann, Sergio Non and Michael Perry)
Energy Secretary Chris Wright clarified comments that were made last week by President Donald Trump on Truth Social about renewed nuclear testing during an appearance on Fox News’ The Sunday Briefing.
Wright told Fox News’ Peter Doocy that people wouldn’t see explosions or anything similar to previous nuclear tests carried out in the United States, saying, “I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests. These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call non-critical explosions.”
Wright elaborated that such tests involve “all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry and they set up the nuclear explosion,” but do not include actual atomic detonations.
Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon and the White House regarding testing nuclear testing Sunday.
Why It Matters
U.S. nuclear weapons policy has global ramifications, impacting diplomatic relations and international security.
The U.S. last conducted a nuclear weapons test in 1992 at the Nevada National Security Site underground. In 1996, the country signed onto the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which “bans all nuclear test explosions, whether for military or civilian purposes.” However, the Senate rejected its ratification in 1999.
With rivals like Russia, China and Iran accelerating their nuclear programs, the Trump administration’s public signals have drawn close scrutiny from lawmakers, the public, and America’s allies and adversaries.
The clarification from Wright provides new insights on the administration’s approach to nuclear deterrence and the ongoing debate about how best to maintain the safety and reliability of the U.S. arsenal while avoiding breaches of international bans on nuclear detonations.
What To Know
On Truth Social last week, Trump wrote that the U.S. “has more nuclear weapons than any other country,” saying it was “accomplished, including a complete update and renovation of existing weapons” during his first term.
The president added: “Because of the tremendous destructive power, I HATED to do it, but had no choice! Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years. Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
On Wednesday, reporters aboard Air Force One asked Trump about his post, seeking details about what it would look like for the U.S. resuming such tests.
“We’re going to do some testing,” the president said. “Other countries do it. If they’re going to do it, we’re going to.” He declined to provide further details.
During his appearance on The Sunday Briefing, Wright was asked by Doocy if residents near the U.S. military’s nuclear testing site in Nevada “should expect to see a mushroom cloud at some point.”
Wright responded: “No, no worries about that.”
The Federation of American Scientists estimates that the U.S. has a nuclear stockpile of about 3,700 warheads, with about 1,700 deployed, while the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) puts the total U.S. inventory at 5,177, with Russia at 5,459. SIPRI notes that “Russia and the USA together possess around 90 percent of all nuclear weapons.” The U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a nuclear arms race during the Cold War.
Only North Korea has conducted a nuclear test detonation this century—the last in 2017—though Russia and China have tested delivery systems but not warheads, according to the Associated Press.
Beijing and Moscow have intensified their nuclear weapons programs in recent years, but neither has confirmed violation of the testing moratorium.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that the Pentagon is moving “quickly” on Trump’s directive. He said during a meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that the department will work with the Department of Energy on nuclear testing, saying that the “president was clear. We need a credible nuclear deterrent.”
What People Are Saying
Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat, wrote on X on Thursday: “New nuclear tests are unnecessary escalation by a President who doesn’t seem to be paying attention. The Chinese and the Russians HAVEN’T conducted a recent test of a nuclear warhead. It’s been decades. If we resume testing our weapons (which we have no reason to do) China will likely begin a test program. This only helps them advance their technology and start an arms race. Read your briefing materials, Mr. President.”
Corey Hinderstein, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for Nuclear Peace, told NPR: “I think a decision to resume nuclear testing would be extremely dangerous and would do more to benefit our adversaries than the United States.”
Ernest Moniz, American nuclear physicist, former secretary of energy, and CEO of The Nuclear Threat Initiative, in a statement on Thursday: “If explosive testing were to resume, it would mark the end of a three-decade-long moratorium on U.S. nuclear testing. Testing nuclear weapons is unnecessary for U.S. national security, unwise because it will invite our adversaries to do the same, and unwelcome in communities close to the test site.”
Vice Admiral Richard Correll, nominee to lead U.S. Strategic Command, said at a Senate hearing last week: “I don’t have insight into the President’s intent. I agree that could be an interpretation.”
What Happens Next?
The Trump administration has not announced any timetable for a resumption of explosive tests, and top officials have continued to emphasize the non-nuclear nature of planned activities.
The situation continues to be closely monitored by lawmakers and international observers, with calls for further transparency and discussion.
China has spent months building up its oil reserves. That might come in handy in the wake of the new sanctions the U.S. recently imposed on Russian crude.
During the first nine months of the year, the world’s second-largest economy imported on average more than 11 million barrels of oil a day, an amount above the daily production of Saudi Arabia, according to official customs data. Analysts estimate 1 million to 1.2 million of those barrels were stashed in reserves each day.
