The number of operational nuclear warheads worldwide increased in 2022, mainly due to Russia and China, according to a report released today.

In early 2023, the nine official and unofficial nuclear forces they possessed 9,576 ready-to-use nuclear warheads equivalent to “at least 135,000 Hiroshima bombs,” according to the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor released by the Norwegian NGO Norsk Folkehjelp.

The addition of 136 warheads to the global nuclear stockpile last year was due to Russia, which has the largest arsenal on the planet (5,889 operational warheads), as well as in China, India, North Korea and Pakistan.

“This increase is alarming and extends a trend that started in 2017,” commented Grete Loglo Ostern, responsible for the report.

The total stockpile of nuclear weapons, which also includes those decommissioned, continues to decline.

Their number fell from 12,705 to 12,512 within a year due to the destruction of old warheads in Russia and the United States.

If the addition of new warheads does not stop, “the total number of nuclear weapons in the world will also begin to increase again soon for the first time since the Cold War,” warned Loglow Ostern, however.

The eight nuclear powers are the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, while Israel is unofficially considered a nuclear power.