Any "tactical" nuclear attacks executed by Vladimir Putin would result in the end of Russian civilisation, a historian has warned.
Putin has an estimated 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons at his disposal and some have the power to kill tens of thousands at a time. With Russia's invasion of Ukraine being met with unexpectedly fierce resistance, there are fears that the Kremlin boss could resort to using his nuclear arsenal to turn the tide of the conflict.
Dominic Sandbrook, an expert in modern history, has said one plausible scenario that could spark a tactical nuclear strike is if the Ukrainians were to launch a counterattack in the Donbas, a region Putin is desperate to hang on to. Mr Sandbrook wrote in the Daily Mail : "One plausible scenario is that if the Ukrainians mount a counterattack in the Donbas — and especially if they threaten his grip on Crimea — Mr Putin might authorise a 'tactical' nuclear strike, using short-range weapons devised for use on the battlefield.
"And even somebody as drunk on his own nationalist resentments as Vladimir Putin must realise that a nuclear war would mean the end of Russian civilisation — the end of Moscow, St Petersburg and everything he and his cronies claim to revere." Using a tactical nuclear weapon would "cause all horror of Hiroshima" on a "smaller scale", according to the journal Scientific American.
"It would also cause all the horrors of Hiroshima, albeit on a smaller scale," the journal added, according to the Mirror. "A tactical nuclear weapon would produce a fireball, shock waves, and deadly radiation that would cause long-term health damage in survivors. Radioactive fallout would contaminate air, soil, water and the food supply (Ukrainians are already familiar with this kind of outcome because of the disastrous meltdown of the Chornobyl nuclear reactor in 1986).
"No one knows if using a tactical nuclear weapon would trigger a full-scale nuclear war. Nevertheless, the risk of escalation is very real. Those on the receiving end of a nuclear strike are not likely to ask whether it was tactical or strategic." The warning comes after Russian state media propagandists called on Putin to unleash his nuclear arsenal on Ukraine.
Alexander Sladkov, a pro-Kremlin media figure, said there would soon be "no way back" but for Putin to strike with nuclear weapons. Sladkov told his 730,000 followers time may be approaching for the “last resort” because some 40 countries are now arming Ukraine with weapons that are being used against the Russians. And Dmitry Kiselyov, the deputy head of the company behind the state-controlled Rossiya 1 channel, said that the British Isles should be struck with an underwater nuclear weapon that would trigger a 1,600-foot radioactive tidal wave and wipe Britain off the map.
"Surging over Britain, it will turn whatever is left of them into radioactive desert, unusable for anything," he said of the wave, pointing to a simulated graphic of the attack. "How do you like this prospect?"
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