Will Russia use nuclear weapons? Putin's warnings explained

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has warned the West repeatedly that an attack on Russia could lead to a nuclear response.

Will Putin use nukes? How many does he have and how would the United States and its NATO military alliance respond to him?

WILL PUTIN GO NUCLEAR?

It all depends on how Putin views the threat to Russia's state and his rule.

Putin describes the war on Ukraine in Russia as an existential struggle between Russia and the West. He claims that the West wants to destroy Russia, and take control of its vast natural resources.

Putin warned the West that he was not lying when he stated that he would be willing to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia. While some analysts believe Putin is lying, Washington takes Putin seriously.

Putin now claims 18% of Ukraine to be part of Russia, increasing the potential for nuclear threats. Putin could use any attack on these territories as an attack on Russia.

Russia's nuclear doctrine permits a nuclear strike in the event of "aggression against Russia with conventional weapons, when the very existence or survival of the state is at risk".

Many Russians reside in Ukraine, which Putin has declared Russian territory. Breaking the post-World War Two nuke taboo will not change the tactical situation.

"He is lying right now," stated Yuri Fyodorov (a Prague-based military analyst). "But it is hard to predict what will happen in the next week or month - once he has lost his war consciousness."

When asked by CBS if Putin was moving towards a nuke attack, William Burns, Director of the CIA, told CBS that he took his threats very seriously considering everything at stake.

Burns said that U.S. intelligence did not have any "practical evidence" suggesting that Putin was on the verge of using tactical nuclear weapons.

WHAT NUCLEAR WEAPONS CAN BE USEED?

A strike using strategic nuclear weapons to devastate cities in America, Russia, Europe, and Asia has not been called for by any Russian official.

Ramzan Kadyrov is the head for Russia's Chechnya Region. He said that Moscow should think about using a low-yield tactical nuke weapon in Ukraine.

Tactical nuclear weapon are nuclear weapons that are used on the battlefield for "tactical" purposes. They are less powerful than big bombs which would be required to destroy large cities like Moscow, Washington, or London.

These weapons can be dropped from aircraft, shot at missiles from below, fired from ships or submarines or detonated from ground forces.

Russia has nuclear-trained special forces that can fight on such an apocalyptic battlefield. However, it is not clear how Russia's army of regular soldiers, mercenaries and drafted reservists would fare.

WHAT WOULD THE UNION STATES DO?

The United States, as the world's dominant superpower, would decide how to respond to any Russian nuclear attack.

The United States and Russia control 90% of all the world's nuke warheads. Their arsenals were built during the Cold War and the Soviet Union left its nuclear assets to Russia.

The U.S. President Joe Biden would consider a non-military option, which would involve responding with another nuclear attack that would risk escalation and responding with a conventional strike that could include Washington in a direct conflict with Moscow.

Jake Sullivan, the U.S. National Security Adviser, stated that Washington had warned Moscow about "catastrophic" consequences if it used nukes.

Former CIA chief and retired General David Petraeus stated that if Russia used nuclear weapons, the United States and NATO would destroy Russian troops in Ukraine and their equipment - and sink their entire Black Sea fleet.

Washington was reminded by Putin that nuclear weapons had only been used in war - in the 1945 attack on Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Nagasaki.

WHO HAS THE MOST NUCLEAR WAPONS?

According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia is the largest nuclear power in the world based on its number of nuclear warheads. It has 5,977 warheads and the United States has 5,428,

These figures do not include retired and stockpiled warheads. However, both Washington and Moscow have sufficient firepower to end all of the known world.

According to the most recent publicly available data, Russia has 1,458 nuclear warheads ready to fire and the United States has 1,389. These warheads can be found on intercontinental missiles, strategic bombers and ballistic missiles aboard submarines.

Russia has more tactical nuclear weapons than the United States, with around 10 times as many. About half of the 200 US tactical nukes are deployed in Europe.

The yields of the US tactical nukes can be adjusted from 0.3 to 170 kilotons (the Hiroshima atomic bomb was approximately 15 kilotons worth of dynamite).

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