War in Ukraine. What nuclear arsenal does Russia have, and what would be the response? – West France

Vladimir Putin and his warring coterie continue to threaten Ukraine with nuclear strikes. A threat that no one takes lightly. Thus, Ukraine will receive five million potassium iodide pellets from the European Union, to be distributed to populations neighboring nuclear power plants who are vulnerable and likely to be damaged during combat. Neighboring Ukraine, Poland is also worried about a possible radiological disaster and has announced the storage of potassium iodide tablets which, it must be remembered, only protect the thyroid.

For his part, US President Joe Biden ruled on Thursday that Russian threats to use nuclear weapons in the conflict in Ukraine put the world at risk of “apocalypse” for the first time since the missile crisis of Cuba (1962), in the middle of the Cold War. Also read: MAINTENANCE. War in Ukraine: Can Vladimir Putin decide alone to use nuclear weapons? Russian threats Vladimir Putin alluded to the atomic bomb in a televised speech on September 21. He then said he was ready to use all the means in his arsenal against the West, which he accused of wanting to destroy Russia. It’s not a bluff, assured the Russian president. Putin is not alone in wielding nuclear rhetoric; Dmitry Medvedev, the former president, in a long post published on Telegram, again assured last week that Russia has the right to use nuclear weapons. As for the head of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, he recently called for the use of low-power nuclear weapons in Ukraine. What panoply? According to the Federation of American Scientists, the Russian nuclear arsenal has 5,977 nuclear warheads, including 1,588 warheads deployed on tactical and strategic vectors (mainly intercontinental missiles), 2,889 warheads in reserve and 1,500 in the process of being dismantled. World arsenals | FAS More precisely, the permanent Russian strike force has 1,588 heads; they are arranged for 812 on ballistic missiles, for 576 in submarines and for 200 on heavy bombers. Of the 4,477 operational warheads (1,588 in line and 2,889 in reserve), 2,565 are strategic weapons and 1,912 non-strategic or tactical weapons (which can be fired by medium-range surface-to-surface missiles or dropped by light bombers of the Mig-31, Su-24 or Su-34 type). According to experts, the attacks with which Putin and his people threaten the Ukrainians and possibly the NATO forces, would probably be carried out with tactical nuclear weapons — smaller in explosive charge than a strategic nuclear weapon, but which would rather target strategic objectives than concentrations of Ukrainian troops. A Russian missile in motion during an exercise in Novosibirsk. | MOD RUSSIA It is difficult to see, moreover, the Russians aiming at targets in the regions recently annexed and now considered as Russian. A tactical strike could, on the other hand, target Ukrainian rear bases, storage centers for equipment delivered by the West or Ukrainian economic targets. Western warning What American response in case Russia uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine? We would respond by leading a NATO effort that eliminates all Russian conventional forces we can see on the Ukrainian battlefield as well as in annexed Crimea, warned ex-four-star general and former CIA director David Petraeus. All ships in the Black Sea would also be destroyed, he added on ABC. Will the firmness displayed by the West be enough to convince the Russian authorities to be reasonable? It’s to do. But we must keep a cool head in the face of the Kremlin’s rantings and avoid climbing the curtains when rumors revive psychosis. Hasn’t there been talk in recent days of a mysterious nuclear weapons convoy circulating on the railways of Russia or of the secret deployment by Russia of the famous nuclear ballistic missile submarine Belgorod? Two unfounded rumours. chevron_leftchevron_right