Putin Has 2,000 Tactical Nuclear Weapons

90 Million Dead Possible: Putin Has 2,000 Tactical Nuclear Weapons

Peter Suciu

On Wednesday, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin suggested he was prepared to use nuclear weapons. Putin made the statement during a televised address when the Russian leader also announced that he had ordered the mobilization of upwards of 300,000 reserve troops in response to Ukraine’s swift recapture of large amounts of territory in recent weeks.

Putin further stressed that the west must take seriously his threat to use nuclear weapons.

“To those who allow themselves such statements regarding Russia, I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and for separate components and more modern than those of NATO countries, and when the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal,” Putin said in a Wednesday address.

“It’s not a bluff,” he added.

Putin also reiterated Russia’s goal in its now seven-month-old invasion of Ukraine is to “liberate” Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, saying the people there do not want to be part of Ukraine. The separatist leaders of the Russian-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the Donbas had announced on Tuesday that they were planning to hold votes starting late this week for the territories to declare themselves as part of Russia.

According to data from the Union of Concerned Scientists, some of the missiles Russia has used against Ukraine can also carry nuclear warheads. In addition, the Kremlin currently maintains some 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons with a broad range of yields, from very low to over 100 kilotons.

Those weapons can be delivered by air, ship, and ground-based systems.

Currently, the United States and Russia hold approximately 90 percent of the world’s stockpile of almost 13,000 nuclear weapons. Neither, however, has the capability to “wipe out” the other’s nuclear arsenal in an initial attack. Given that fact, both countries maintain an understanding of “mutually assured destruction,” as any use of strategic nuclear weapons would most certainly invite a nuclear counterattack.

It would also have the potential of a civilization-ending nuclear exchange.

Where the issue becomes more complex is in the use of so-called “tactical nuclear weapons,” which Putin might believe he could use in a limited attack – such as a low-yield strike at an isolated military target where few civilians would be harmed.

In addition, Russia may explode a nuclear weapon over the Black Sea to warn NATO countries against aiding Ukraine.

The danger is that Putin could see such weapons as more “useable,” the Union of Concerned Scientists warned, noting that U.S. wargameshave predicted that a conflict involving even the use of tactical nuclear weapons could quickly spiral out of control. A Princeton University simulation found that a U.S.-Russian conflict that begins with the use of such weapons could rapidly escalate, resulting in more than 90 million people dead or injured.

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