Russia simulates nuclear strike after lawmakers revoke test ban treaty ratification

Russia’s military conducted drills Wednesday and simulated a nuclear strike just hours after the upper house of the Russian parliament revoked the ratification of a nuclear test ban treaty.

The bill will now be passed to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desk after the upper house voted Tuesday. The bill removes Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) signed in 1996 and ratified in 2000.

The state television showed Putin overseeing the exercise Wednesday via a video call with top military officials, The Associated Press reported.

Russia’s Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu said the drills, which included multiple practices of launching ballistic and cruise missiles, are meant as a practice for “dealing a massive nuclear strike with strategic offensive forces in response to a nuclear strike by the enemy.”

Similar drills are practiced every year, but Shoigu’s comments come amid heightened tensions between Russia and the West over the battle in Ukraine.

Putin first floated the idea of removing the ratification of the CTBT last month, pointing to the United States’s decision to sign the nuclear test ban but not ratify it.

Russia has waited 23 years for “something to change in Washington” in terms of ratification, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

“Regrettably, no indications that the U.S. is going to follow this path are visible, and so we have no choice but to balance our position,” Ryabkov said.

The CTBT bans all nuclear explosions anywhere in the world, but the treaty was never fully implemented. It has yet to be ratified by China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran, Egypt or the United States.

The Associated Press contributed.