VLADIMIR Putin could turn the Ukraine war nuclear by dropping a bomb over the Black Sea or firing at a US target, a national security expert has said.
Russia has already warned its shambolic invasion of Ukraine is likely to end in a nuclear world war with the Russian tyrant "more probable" to launch a nuke than accept defeat.
While the threats have been dismissed by both the US and the UK as mere bluster, fears of an all-out war using nuclear armaments are a realistic possibility as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine falters and troops continue to meet fierce opposition.
Concerns were raised after Russia test-fired its nuclear missile Sarmat 2 last week, with Putin boasting it was able to strike anywhere on earth and couldn’t be stopped by existing missile defences.
Joseph Cirincione, a distinguished fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington, D.C, has now revealed five chilling ways Putin could unleash nuclear weapons on the world.
Speaking on Bill Press Pods, he warned the Russian dictator could initially fire nukes into the Black Sea as a "demonstration shot" before using nuclear weapons on targets in Ukraine.
And in a worrying worst case scenario, Mr Cirincione said Putin could fire at Nato targets or even the United States.
The threat of a nuclear attack has been played down by the West.
UK Armed Forces minister James Heappey said there was no "imminent threat of escalation", while Defence Secretary Ben Wallace wrote off the warnings as Putin "distracting the world and the public from what he’s actually doing in Ukraine".
But Mr Cirincione said: "The first possibility is you would use a nuclear weapon in a demonstration shot, so you would fire something into the Black Sea, for example.
"The purpose of this is to 'escalate to de-escalate' if the war is going badly.
"If the Russians felt they were on the verge of defeat, they would fire off a nuclear shot to indicate the seriousness of the situation, and to cause the West to back off.
In a second scenario, Mr Cirincione said Putin could unleash a "very low yield weapon" on a military target in Ukraine, killing thousands and causing major damage."The third possibility is that they use a serious nuclear weapon - Hiroshima sized or more - and it strikes and it destroys a city in Ukraine.
"At that point, that's where things get quite serious.
"I would immediately expect to see long-range military response from Nato. Not Nato forces on the ground, but long-range strikes, which we are perfectly capable of doing.
"We could strike the launch site, for example, and definitely send a message saying 'do not do this again'. That's what you're trying to do, trying to control the escalation."
No comments:
Post a Comment