Russia is strengthening security at its Arctic nuclear test site due to fears of an attack by Ukrainian UAVs. PHOTOS
Against the backdrop of Ukrainian drone strikes on energy and military facilities, Russia has begun to strengthen security measures at the country's largest nuclear test site on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arkhangelsk region.
This is evident from satellite images published by Google Earth on 14 August, which were studied by The Barents Observer, Censor.NET reports.
The nuclear test site at Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic is located more than 2,500 kilometres north of Ukraine.
Thus, in the village of Severny, a base for nuclear testing, three rows of fuel tanks supplying the village with fuel were covered with protective metal nets.
The function of these nets is to prevent drones from exploding directly on the fuel tanks and thus igniting the fuel itself.
Tanks located near the port complex near the village of Severny store petrol for vehicles used at the nuclear test site . Closer to the centre of the village , there are several large tanks of fuel oil used forcentral heating and electricity, which are not covered with nets, as can be seen in the images, as well as several tanks for aviation fuel at the helicopter landing site near Severnyi.
These blue nets are similar to those covering fuel tanks at other military installations, such as the Olenya airbase south of Murmansk, which has already been attacked by Ukrainian armed forces drones.
No real nuclear tests have been carried out at the Novaya Zemlya test site since 1990, but so-called subcritical experiments (i.e. tests without a chain reaction that do not lead to an explosion) are currently taking place in a mine complex three kilometres south of the village of Severny . In addition, one tunnel has been created in the area and a second is under construction in case Moscow decides to resume nuclear tests, The Barents Observer reports.
It is noted that Ukraine is well aware of the facilities at the nuclear test site in Novaya Zemlya, including because during the Soviet era, a mining team from this Soviet republic dug mines in the mountains, where underground nuclear bomb tests were conducted from 1964 to 1990. There is even a hotel in Severne called Hotel Ukraine.
One of the most secretive military structures in Russia, the 12th Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defence, which controls the storage, maintenance, transportation and delivery of nuclear warheads, is responsible for the tests conducted at the site these days. They are assisted by experts from Rosatom, which is responsible for the production of plutonium and highly enriched weapons-grade uranium.
