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- MOSCOW, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Russian rocket forces have put a new Yars intercontinental ballistic missile into a silo at the Kozelsk base in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, the defence ministry said.
- The 23-metre long RS-24 (Yars) missile is built to carry multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs), which allow the missile to deliver multiple nuclear warheads at different targets.
- “In the Kozelsky compound, Strategic Missile Forces loaded a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile into a silo launcher,” the defence ministry said.
- The defence ministry shared a clip of the giant missile being transported to a silo and loaded into a shaft. It paired the video with pounding rock music.
- Russia has the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, closely followed by the United States. Together, Russia and the United States hold more than 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons.
- Russia has about 5,889 nuclear weapons while the United States has about 5,244, according to the Federation of American Scientists. Of those, Russia and the United States each have about 1,670 strategic nuclear weapons deployed.
