Two news in just a few days offered a summary of the importance of Russia’s nuclear deterrence and its need to update it. On the one hand, Moscow announced that it will stop respecting the limitations of the treaty of nuclear forces of intermediate scope. On the other, the New York Times confirmed through satellite images that its nuclear submarine base had been damaged after an earthquake. Now Ukraine has just added another asterisk.
The end to the treaty. The first news occurred two days ago. Moscow announced that it will set aside the limitations of the Treaty of Nuclear Forces of Intermediate Scope (INF), signed in 1987 to eliminate terrestrial missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers and considered a milestone of the cold war. Although the pact was already broken after the withdrawal of the United States in 2019, Moscow maintained a unilateral moratorium that is now terminated, claiming that Washington plans to deploy missiles of this type in Europe and Asia.
The decision, in addition, coincides with the entry into service of the Oshnik missile, capable of carrying nuclear eyelets and unfolding in Belarus, which increases fear in the West to a new arms race in which European capitals would remain minutes from a Russian attack. While Medvedev launches direct warnings, the Kremlin seeks to clarify the tone, although the definitive breakdown of the INF confirms the setback of nuclear control mechanisms and elevates strategic tensions in Europe and Asia.
The “touched” nuclear base. We have fear and finally has been confirmed. The earthquake that made the Russian nation tremble caused damage to the strategic base of Nuclear Submarines of Rybachiy, in the Kamchatka Peninsula, according to Satellite images of Planet Labs cited by The New York Times.
The photos show that a section of a floating dock detached from its anchor, although there are no major damage to the facilities. The Rybachiy base, vital for the Russian nuclear fleet in the Pacific, thus maintains its operation despite the damage located in its infrastructure.
Before and after earthquakes in nuclear infrastructure
Filtration. A few hours ago, the Ukrainian military intelligence (Hur) has announced the obtaining of classified internal documents of the K-55 Knyaz Pozharsky, the most more modern Russian nuclear nuclear submarine in the Borei-A class, essential piece of the Kremlin nuclear triad. This ship, officially incorporated into the northern fleet on July 24, 2025 in a ceremony chaired by Putin, is armed with 16 intercontinental missiles R-30 Bulava-30, each capable of carrying up to ten nuclear eyelets.
According to kyiv, the material obtained includes complete lists of the crew with details of functions, physical preparation and qualifications, combat manuals, survival systems schemes, organizational structure, internal regulations for life on board, evacuation protocols and transfer of injuries, as well as technical documents on breakdown equipment and engineering records. It would even have secured an excerpt from the daily service book, which regulates routine tasks and submarine combat operations.
Part of the classified documents filtered
The failures. The most surprising thing about the case is that the now published filtration represents a significant blow to Russian operational security, since it offers Ukraine already its allies Critical information on technical vulnerabilities not only of the Knyaz Pozharsky, but of the entire series of boreyic submarines, considered the most modern nucleus of Moscow nuclear deterrence.
These data, according to Ukraine’s intelligence, will identify from design limitations to safety protocols and resistance capacities, also eroding the perception of invulnerability that Russia tries to project with its strategic fleet. Hur itself stressed that this intelligence dismantles the “imperial myth” on the strength of Russian nuclear arsenal, by exposing the fragilities of systems that Kremlin presents as unwavering.
Part of the classified documents filtered
The naval context in the war. Plus: Revelation comes at a time when the Russian Navy has suffered a palpable deterioration of its prestige and effectiveness, especially in the Black Sea, where the fleet has lost several key ships at the hands of Ukrainian naval drones and Western missiles. The sinking of the Caesar Kunikov landing vessel, of patrolman Sergei Kotov and the Ivanovets corvette, among others, has weakened an instrument that until 2022 was perceived as dominant in the region.
The attention of NATO, meanwhile, moves to the North Arctic and Atlantic, where Russian underwater activities are closely monitored and have motivated the deployment of new allied maritime forces. Within that framework, knowing the specifications and vulnerabilities of the Borei-A class, which constitutes the strategic arm of the northern fleet in Gadzhievo, results from an incalculable value to calibrate nuclear balance and reinforce allied deterrence.
The information in the modern war. If you want also, the Hur operation is more than a spying success: it symbolizes how, in the 21st century war, information can have as much power as a precision missile. Ukraine, confronted with an adversary with palpable material superiority, turns intelligence into an asymmetric weapon capable of undressing the vulnerability of the jewel of the Russian strategic fleet.
On the other sidewalk, the lesson for Moscow seems clear: not even its nuclear submarines, designed to guarantee the survival of the State in case of total war, are immune, not only to natural disasters, but to the war of information.
Image | Ukrainian Intelligence, Planet Labs
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