Is Putin Likely to Use Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine?

WASHINGTON, DC, Oct 10 — In 1964, USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev revealed that the Soviet Union had developed a so-called Doomsday Device — a nuclear weapon “capable of destroying all humanity,” as he put it.  At the time, the New York Times wrote “If Soviet laboratories have, indeed, developed a Doomsday weapon, it is of small help to the machinations of the Kremlin. For its use in the world of man is incredible except as an act of total irrationality, of national and world suicide. It can have no effectiveness either as a deterrent or as an instrument of conquest.”

Here we are, nearly six decades later, and another Russian megalomaniac by the name of Vladimir Putin is threatening the world with nukes. Take a tip from Nikita’s doomsday threat, Vlad. Think MAD — Mutually Assured Destruction.

But don’t underestimate Putin’s egomania. He’s a power-hungry tyrant who hates the west, in particular America. He might start by using tactical nuclear weapons like mini-nukes in Ukraine to test America’s resolve. In fact, a Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov recently suggested to Putin that “more drastic measures should be taken, right up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons [in Ukraine].”

Meanwhile, Naval News reports that the Russian submarine, Belgorod, said to be armed with nuclear ‘apocalypse’ and ‘doomsday’ weapons has left its berth in the White Sea on the northwest coast of Russia. Its current location is unknown. “This could be routine, to test a new weapon system. Or it could principally be political, as a demonstration. Testing nuclear weapons, even without warheads, may be part of Russia’s chosen nuclear escalation ladder.”

Fox News also reported on the Belgorod. Rebekah Koffler, a strategic intelligence expert, told Fox “There have been times when Russian nuclear-powered attack submarines, armed with long-range cruise missiles, operated undetected for weeks close to U.S. shores.”

However, Putin’s nuclear threat has prompted a homeland response. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] appears to be preparing for the worst. According to the Epoch Times, HHS seems to be stockpiling drugs as part of “long-standing, ongoing efforts to be better prepared to save lives following radiological and nuclear emergencies.”

It has also seemed to have scared the states of New York and New Jersey in a way that hasn’t been seen since the 1950s and 1960s when the Soviet Union and the U.S. were amassing nuclear arms. New Jersey is said to be using bus-side advertisements such as “Do you know what to do in a radiation emergency?” and the three-step guide: “go inside, stay inside, and stay tuned for news updates.” New York City has produced a video message with a narrator saying, “So there’s been a nuclear attack. Don’t ask me how or why, just know that the big one has hit. OK? So, what do we do?” 

According to Newsmax, Dr. Jane Orient, president of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, criticized these endeavors, saying “These ads are likely to cause panic … [they seem] “designed to get people cowering inside indefinitely and depending on a totally unprepared government.”

The bottom line is this: according to the United States Institute of Peace, “Russia could seek to intimidate Ukraine and its supporters by detonating a small nuclear weapon. But indications suggest that Putin’s saber-rattling already is frightening Russians themselves. A ‘demonstration strike’ in Ukraine poses a risk to Putin of further alarming, and dividing, the Russian elites via which he exercises power. Finally, Russian military and nuclear doctrine limits a Russian use of nuclear weapons to two situations: responding to the use of a weapon of mass destruction against Russia or its allies, or when conventional warfare threatens Russian nuclear command and control or the existence of the state itself. The war in Ukraine presents no such case.”