Tensions flared last year over whether Moscow would resort to nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine. The treaty was meant to establish limits on deployed strategic nuclear warheads, deployed and non-deployed intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments. inspections on its territory since August, and NATO ambassadors said in a statement last week that Russia is failing to comply with its obligations under the New START Treaty.

The news that the Russian government has initiated updates to bomb shelters throughout the country comes days after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) warned that Russia is chipping away at a key nuclear arms control treaty. The mobilization, which the intelligence branch assesses will last up to two months, is in addition to the “partial mobilization” of 300,000 Russia ordered last fall, which coincided with increased interest in shelters. “This is another obvious sign that Putin's Kremlin has no intention of ending the war,” a representative for the intelligence directorate, Vadim Skibitskyi, said Monday. Residents in Moscow, Belgorod, and Kursk have also reportedly been building bomb shelters. The shelters built then would allow people to remain inside them for as long as a year, and could allow people to survive a nuclear explosion. The demand for bomb shelters in Russia rose last year after Putin announced the “partial mobilization” of troops for the war in Ukraine, according to Russian news outlet 66.RU. And although in some regions authorities have installed signs near the shelters, some authorities have sought to downplay the updates, in an apparent attempt to avoid causing panic. The preparations will reportedly continue this year.

Local authorities have reportedly spent hundreds of millions of rubles on the bomb shelter preparations, which allegedly began in February 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. Moscow has not publicly announced the updates.

“An order was given from Moscow to carry out this work everywhere-inspection and repair,” one Russian official told the outlet in a report published Monday. The Kremlin has quietly ordered an upgrade to bomb shelters across Russia, according to four former and current Russian officials who spoke with The Moscow Times.

Active fallout shelters near me