Not lengthy after the invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin reminded the world of his nation’s nuclear arsenal.
“Whoever tries to impede us, not to mention create threats for our nation and its individuals, should know that the Russian response can be quick and result in penalties you will have by no means seen in historical past,” he mentioned in remarks from the Kremlin.
“Nobody ought to have any doubts {that a} direct assault on our nation will result in the destruction and horrible penalties for any potential aggressor,” he added, emphasising that Russia is “some of the potent nuclear powers and likewise has a sure edge in a variety of state-of-the-art weapons”.
Mr Putin repeated the menace throughout a televised tackle in September through which he ordered a partial navy mobilisation of 300,000 reservists to help his beleaguered troops on the bottom and instructed the West that the prospect of Moscow making use of its nuclear assets was “not a bluff.”
Cautioning Nato towards aggressive anti-Russian rhetoric, Mr Putin warned: “I wish to remind you that our nation additionally has numerous technique of destruction, and for some parts extra fashionable than these of the Nato nations.”
Towards such stark warnings, it’s price asking: what precisely is Russia’s nuclear capability?
Though the nation has drastically reduced its nuclear weapons shops because the Chilly Conflict, it nonetheless maintains the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads on the earth.
As of 2023, Russia has about 5,977 nuclear warheads, an estimated 1,500 awaiting dismantling, 2,565 deployed strategic warheads and 466 Intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles, in keeping with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
As for the Kremlin’s perspective to their use, the Donald Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Evaluate in 2018 discovered that: “Russian technique and doctrine emphasise the potential coercive and navy makes use of of nuclear weapons.
“It mistakenly assesses that the specter of nuclear escalation or precise first use of nuclear weapons would serve to ‘de-escalate’ a battle on phrases favorable to Russia.”
Till the current battle, Mr Putin had publicly emphasised that he thought of nuclear weapons “solely as a method of deterrence” however that stance seems to have modified considerably, judging by his newer feedback.
It’s now feared that Russia’s president, humiliated by the failure of his conquest up to now, may resort to extra drastic measures in Ukraine as the primary anniversary of the warfare approaches, on condition that he can be below huge strain to current demonstrable “wins” to a public rising impatient with a futile battle and starting to see by means of the fog of propaganda.
The information that the typical variety of Russian troopers dying per day has hit 824 in February 2023, 4 occasions increased than the speed of casualties recorded in June and July 2022, will solely enhance the strain on Russia’s remoted chief to win at any price.
For its half, Ukraine additionally inherited numerous nuclear weapons after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 however the nation determined to completely de-nuclearise below the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which supplied the nation safety assurances from the US, UK and Russia.