Photo/Illutration Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki speaks about Hiroshima Report 2023 at a news conference in the prefectural government office on April 21. (Rikuri Kuroda)

HIROSHIMA--Experts are condemning Russia in a new report for deepening the rift among nuclear powers through the “nuclear intimidations” it made during its invasion of Ukraine.

Hiroshima Prefecture along with several academic groups released a document called Hiroshima Report 2023 on April 21 that grades each country’s efforts over the past year toward abolishing nuclear weapons.

Specialists from both Japan and abroad analyzed the developments in 34 nuclear and non-nuclear states over the last year, assessing efforts in nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation and nuclear security.

Russia unsurprisingly got a failing grade for raising the specter of nuclear war. Moscow ranked at the bottom of the list in all three divisions among the five nations that possess nuclear weapons under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).

“Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine has repeatedly created serious situations that could result in radioactive contamination not only in Ukraine but also in neighboring countries and Europe as a whole at any time,” the report said, referencing Russia’s attacks and captures of nuclear facilities in Ukraine.

Moscow was also singled out for having “raised urgent concerns in the international community that nuclear weapons would be used for the first time since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

Hiroshima Report 2023 also points to Russia’s opposition scuttling the final draft report at the NPT review conference in August last year.

“There was little progress in terms of agreeing on or implementing further nuclear disarmament,” the report said.

At the review conference, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida presented a document dubbed the Hiroshima Action Plan.

Hiroshima Report 2023 praised the plan, but Japan still only places seventh out of 22 non-nuclear nations mainly because it is refusing to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

“It (Japan) has increased reliance on extended (nuclear) deterrence,” the report said.

SCORES FOR DISARMAMENT BY NUCLEAR POWERS

Note: Data is based on Hiroshima Report 2023. Figures in parentheses represent number of nuclear warheads.

Scores for key NPT members out of 109

France (290 warheads): 28.5 points

Britain (225 warheads): 24.5 points

The United States (5,428 warheads): 24.2 points

China (350 warheads): 11.5 points

Russia (5,977 warheads): 3.9 points

 Scores for four other key nations out of 106

India (160 warheads): 3.2 points

Pakistan (165 warheads): 0 point

Israel (90 warheads): minus 1 point

North Korea (20 warheads): minus 6 points

Related News