Russia has boasted of its weapons arsenal in recent years, even as its military clout increased after the war in Ukraine as its threats to the West also increased. Among all his warnings there are those of Use of nuclear weaponswith which Moscow could provoke an unprecedented catastrophe or a third world war in which other countries in the world would also be involved. An alarm situation that could occur immediatelysaid several Western experts.
According to the Financial Times, Kremlin forces have been rehearsing tactical attack scenarios at an early stage of a conflict with a world power. A total of twenty-nine secret Russian files between 2008 and 2014, including dReports on how war games could be developed and presentations to naval officers. “This is the first time we have seen publicly available documents of this kind,” Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, told the media.
According to these secret documents, a possible nuclear response could be triggered if an enemy enters Russian territory, based on more concrete examples such as the destruction of 20 percent of Moscow’s strategic ballistic missile submarines.
“Russia can accidentally trigger a nuclear war”: Experts assume that Moscow “can use nuclear weapons at any time”
Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons can transmitted by land, by sea-based missiles or by the use of aircraft. Strategic nuclear weapons have the deterrence and mutually assured destruction capabilities that dominated the Cold War. The United States and Russia have reduced their arsenals of these weapons from 19,000 and 35,000 to 3,700 and 4,480, respectively, by January 2022. In theory, tactical nuclear weapons are more likely to be used, so possessing them would strengthen a country’s deterrence.
Despite their greater power, the military usefulness of tactical nuclear weapons is questionable as bombs containing conventional explosives have become increasingly powerful and the United States has even reduced their numbers.
“They show that the threshold for using nuclear weapons is quite low if the desired result cannot be achieved using conventional means.”explains Gabuev.
Meanwhile, Russian experts believe that “the war scenario is real and we must do everything to prevent it.” On the other hand, Russia warned the West last week that Russia was “capable of accidentally starting a nuclear war.”