To be sure, U.S. officials say they do not see an immediate threat to the security of Russia's strategic and tactical weapons.
"We have not seen any changes in the disposition of Russian nuclear forces," said a National Security Council spokesperson in response to questions from Reuters.
U.S. intelligence agencies said in their 2023 Annual Threat assessment that "Russia's nuclear material security ... remains a concern despite improvements to material protection, control, and accounting at Russia's nuclear sites since the 1990s."
Russia’s nuclear arsenal is the world’s largest, estimated in 2022 at 5,977 warheads by the Federation of American scientists, compared to an estimated 5,428 held by the U.S.
“This has always been a super-high (U.S.) intelligence collection priority and the command and control of nuclear weapons in Russia,” said Hoffman.
Persons:
Wagner, Alexander Ermochenko WASHINGTON, group's, Wagner's, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin's, Marc Polymeropoulos, you’re, Ramzan, Kadyrov, Daniel Hoffman, Dmitry Peskov, Hoffman, “, Putin, ”, Jonathan Landay, Don Durfee, Daniel Wallis
Organizations:
Southern Military District, REUTERS, CIA, National Security, Reuters, Federation of, U.S, Thomson
Locations:
Rostov, Don, Russia, Moscow, Washington, Europe, Eurasia, U.S, Washington . U.S, Ukraine, United States