Nine countries possess nuclear weapons, with Russia having the largest stockpile of military nuclear warheads.

China has an estimated 600 nuclear warheads—an increase of 100 in just one year—the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that special attention in the country's new arms programme should be paid to the nuclear triad - land-based, sea-based and aircraft-launched weapons.

Nine countries currently either say they have nuclear weapons or are believed to possess them. The first to have nuclear arms were the five original nuclear weapons states — the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom.

The Ukrainian operation was “grounds for a nuclear attack,” declared Vladmir Solovyov, a firebrand host on Russian state TV, calling for strikes on the Ukrainian presidential office in Kyiv, and beyond.

The European Commission will not propose measures to limit the EU's reliance on Russian nuclear fuel this week alongside its proposals to ban Russian gas, EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen said on Monday.

Swedish broadcaster SVT has obtained new satellite images showing that russia is modernizing its nuclear bases near Europe - one of them is located 270 km from