Nuclear arsenals owned by several countries are predicted to soar in the coming years, something that has not happened since the Cold War. Thus, the chances of these dangerous nuclear weapons being used to attack the enemy are the highest in the last decade.
Such is the gloomy estimate put forward by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). Predictably, this phenomenon was caused by the high tension of the war between Ukraine and Russia involving western countries. As is known, the supply of Ukrainian weapons is heavily assisted by NATO.
In fact, the number of nuclear weapons has fallen slightly in January 2022 compared to the previous year. But according to Sipri, if no real countermeasures are taken, the global number of nuclear warheads is expected to rise for the first time in a long time.
As quoted by us from the Guardian, this prediction is considered worrying because it could threaten humanity with destruction. "All nuclear-armed countries are multiplying or upgrading their weapons," said Wilfred Wan, director at Sipri.
Moreover, the rhetoric of nuclear attack has been made several times by Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. Russia has the most nuclear weapons arsenal in the world with 5,977 warheads, 550 more than the United States.
The combined nuclear power of the two countries accounts for more than 90% of global nuclear weapons. Other countries that have nuclear eg Britain, China and France.
Sipri noted the number of nuclear warheads in January 2022 was 12,705, down from January 2021 which was 13,080. A total of 3,732 warheads have been mounted on missiles or aircraft so that they are ready to fire. It is even estimated that there are 2,000 units of nuclear weapons on standby to be put into operation in a short time, especially those of the United States and Russia.