Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Moscow was said to be “fully ready” for detonating a nuclear bomb at “any moment” in the Arctic, as per a report published in The Daily Mail.
Soviet test site’s director Rear Admiral Andrei Sinitsyn said that the testing facilities are prepared and can be used immediately “if the order is given”.
“The test site is ready to resume full-scale testing activities… The laboratory and testing facilities are ready. The personnel are ready,” said Rear Admiral Sinitsyn, while speaking to the state-owned Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
He added that “foreign intelligence” has been monitoring the site, which is “likely a sign of a concern over nuclear tests”.
“We are constantly ready to repel all types of threats, including the penetration of sabotage and reconnaissance groups onto the island,” he stated.
Sinitsyn said that “the ‘Central Test Site of the Russian Federation’ would be used for ‘conducting and providing non-nuclear explosive experiments”. He added that the tests were “in the interests of state security”.
Can resume nuclear testing after Putin’s order: Sinitsyn
Speaking about the preparedness of the site, Sinitsyn said, “The testing ground is ready to resume full-scale testing activities. Ready in full.”
He said that the test can go ahead if Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an order.
Since October 1990, the site has not been used for nuclear testing.
Sinitsyn said that the priority is to deter aggressors by “readiness” of testing ground infrastructure.
He added that this includes maintaining a ‘laboratory’ and ‘experimental base’ in a prepared state.
Watch: Russia-Ukraine war: Putin, NATO Pushing World to Brink of World War III?
“The testing ground has the appropriate staff, weapons, equipment, that is, everything that is necessary for our activities,” Sinitsyn said.
Days back, MP Andrei Kolesnik had appealed to Putin to authorise a nuclear bomb test as a warning signal to the Western countries.
“We need to carry out a nuclear explosion somewhere, at some testing ground,” Andrei Kolesnik, who is from the ruling United Russia party.
“Nuclear tests are currently prohibited in our country. But maybe people should see what all this actually leads to, they should hear. If we lift the moratorium, maybe humanity will think twice,” he added.
(With inputs from agencies)