As Ukrainian drones continue to hammer infrastructure deep inside Russia and “besiege” Crimea by breaking the road, rail and sea routes to the peninsula, even Vladimir Putin has had to admit that Russia is facing problems. Some ultra-nationalist hawks are now advocating the use of nuclear weapons to break Ukraine’s resistance and cow the West – although such a scenario is still extremely unlikely.
This would not be a mission for Russia’s 1,700-plus strategic nuclear warheads, such as those carried aboard its submarines or mounted on missiles deep in hardened silos. Rather, it would use the country’s stockpile of tactical or “non-strategic” nuclear weapons, which number up to 2,000.
Ranging from missile warheads to artillery shells, these are still devastating weapons, with yields ranging from 0.5 kilotons (in other words, equivalent to 500 tonnes of TNT explosive) to 50 kilotons, which is more than twice as powerful as the bomb that devastated Nagasaki in 1945.
Shorts
Especially in the earlier stages of the war, Putin frequently hinted he would use nuclear weapons if Ukraine or the West crossed one illusory red line or another. He was bluffing, but president Biden was convinced he “wasn’t joking”, and this conditioned and limited US military aid to Kyiv. Although the Trump White House is more circumspect, there is some concern that, having successfully bluffed the West then, Putin might try this again and find himself forced this time to follow through on his threats.
