Russia stockpiles nuclear arsenal amid tensions with US, EU over Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his country would add more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal this year.
Putin’s comment came at the opening of an arms show near Moscow on Tueday, a day after Russian officials denounced a US plan to station tanks and heavy weapons in NATO states on Russia’s border as the most aggressive US act since the Cold War.
“More than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles able to overcome even the most technically advanced anti-missile defence systems will be added to the make-up of the nuclear arsenal this year,” Putin said.
Putin also noted that the military was to start testing its new long-range early warning radar intended to monitor the Western direction.
Russia-West relations have plunged to their lowest point since the Cold War times over Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and support for the pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The US and the EU have slapped Russia with economic sanctions, and Washington and its NATO allies have pondered an array of measures in response to Russia’s moves.
The three Baltic members of the alliance, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have asked NATO to permanently deploy ground troops to their nations as a deterrent against an increasingly assertive Russia. And Polish Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said on Sunday that he and US Defence Secretary Ash Carter held talks about placing US heavy army equipment in Poland.
Moscow bristled at the plans, warning Washington that the deployment of new US weapons near Russian borders would foment dangerous instability in Europe.
“The United States is inciting tensions and carefully nurturing their European allies’ anti-Russian phobias in order to use the current difficult situation for further expanding its military presence and influence in Europe,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a comment late on Monday.
“We hope that reason will prevail and it will be possible to save the situation in Europe from sliding toward a military standoff which could entail dangerous consequences,” it added. -Agency report.