Russia is reportedly preparing its citizens for a full blown nuclear war against the West. The country’s officials and its media have claimed that the West, led by the United States of America, is planning to launch a nuclear attack against Russia, Mirror reports.

Russian officials are now trying to prove that they are ready for whatever is to come, as they announced on Friday that Moscow already has enough underground shelters for its 12 million people and the rest of the nation will soon follow in its footsteps. Zvezda, a channel of the country’s defense ministry, had released a headline last week that said “Schizophrenics from America are sharpening nuclear weapons for Moscow.”

Also as part of their preparation for war, the country’s officials have announced that a staggering 40 million of its citizens are set to take part in a nuclear disaster drill between October 4 and 7. That is almost a third of Russia’s population. Along with them, almost 200,000 specialists from the “emergency rescue divisions” with 50,000 different equipment are set to be involved in the four-day drill. The Russian Ministry of Civil Defense made the announcement via its official website and has called the 4-day long program a “civil defense, emergency evacuation and disaster preparedness drill”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. [Photo by Etienne Oliveau/Getty Images]

There have been severe tensions between the United States and Russia over the Russian military’s intervention in Syria. Putin’s officials had previously announced that they had foreseen an attack by the U.S. right after the two nations break off their faltering talks over the Syrian conflict. And in an alarming development, that has just happened.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had announced earlier that the U.S. was “on the verge” of ceasing talks with Russia following weeks of severe air strikes by the Russian military on Aleppo. The United States Government released an official statement on Monday, delivered by U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby, saying that they had officially suspended all talks with Russia.

“The United States is suspending its participation in bilateral channels with Russia that were established to sustain the cessation of hostilities. “This is not a decision that was taken lightly.”

Only hours before the U.S. government confirmed that they had ceased talks with Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin had signed a decree to suspend Russia’s agreements with the U.S. over the disposition of weapons-grade plutonium. The decree had cited “unfriendly acts” by the United States Government.

Russia’s foreign ministry released its own statement saying that it regretted suspending talks with the US and explaining their side of the story.

“Washington simply did not fulfil the key condition of the agreement to improve the humanitarian condition around Aleppo. After failing to fulfil the agreements that they themselves worked out, they are trying to shift responsibility on to someone else”.

In the statement, the ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also added that Russia had in fact made serious efforts in fulfilling the ceasefire deal with the U.S. in the past few days. She also explained what ultimately led to the failure of the deal.

“It all essentially came down to a simple question – who are Jabhat al-Nusra, who is behind them, and why can’t Washington fulfil its promise to divide the terrorists from the so-called moderate opposition.”

A former White House expert on Russia, Andrew S. Weiss, commented on the suspension of negotiations between the two superpowers and what this could mean for their futures.

“Cooperation over Syria was the Obama administration’s last and best shot for arresting the downward spiral in the bilateral relationship with Russia. The mistrust and hostility toward the United States by the Russian leadership is real and growing. It is going to be the driving force behind Russian external behavior for many years to come.”

[Feature Image by Esteban De Armas/Shutterstock]