My Take | Settle the war in Ukraine before nuclear bombs start flying
- Russia and the United States are threatening each other – and by extension the world – with Armageddon. This madness must stop now
While Russia is hinting at a nuclear escalation, the United States has stepped up its force posture with the ultimate weapon of war. So while fuelling a proxy war in Ukraine, Washington is modernising its nuclear arsenal in Europe when no ally is being directly threatened.
Are we drifting back to 1962 between the two old enemies when the world was on the brink of nuclear annihilation during the Cuban missile crisis?
Moscow warned at the weekend that the US was accelerating its deployment of modernised tactical nukes at Nato bases in Europe that were designed for field battles with a lower yield but more precise and targeted destruction.
The Russian warning came as the US reportedly told Nato members this month that it would accelerate the deployment of B61-12 nuclear warheads, a modernised version of the older B61, by December, which will be several months earlier than planned.
Pentagon spokesmen have declined to offer details, saying only any such modernisation was long planned and predated the Ukraine crisis. If so, why not delay rather than speed up the plan at this moment of great danger in Europe?
Contrary to some news reports, Russia has not directly mentioned the use of nuclear weapons. What it said was: “In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us.”
However, it’s not unreasonable to make the inference given that statement and that Russian President Vladimir Putin was highly publicised monitoring exercises by his strategic nuclear forces last week that were meant to simulate a response to a “massive nuclear strike.”