As Russia seeks a breakthrough in Ukraine, nuclear war fears have returned

 

With Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the horror of nuclear war has returned to the forefront of public discourse after being absent for decades, underscoring the breakdown of the Cold War-era system of international security.

The military impasse has stoked concerns that Moscow may turn to its nuclear arsenal in an effort to break the deadlock and forward its attack.

The five recognised nuclear weapon states and permanent members of the UN Security Council are Britain, China, France, and Russia.

According to Camille Grand, a former NATO deputy secretary-general, "it's the first time a nuclear power has used its standing to wage a conventional war beneath the shadow cast by nuclear weapons."

Asserting that the use of the weapons is still "improbable," he told AFP, "One could have assumed that rogue states would take such an attitude, but suddenly it's one of the two big nuclear powers, a member of the UN Security Council."

The moral and strategic nuclear "taboo" that developed during the 1945 US bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to conclude World War II is still in effect as of right now.

However, the rhetoric has greatly increased.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russian TV broadcasts have frequently advocated nuclear attacks on Western cities like Paris or New York.

If President Vladimir Putin believed that Russia's existence was under danger, the former ambassador warned that "he will click the button."

The year's events have served as a painful wake-up call for Europe, which spent decades enjoying the so-called Cold War "peace dividend" in a condition of relative calm with regard to nuclear security.

US President Joe Biden issued a global "Armageddon" warning in October, across the Atlantic.

The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which was crucial in preserving the nuclear balance of power and was signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1972, was abandoned by the United States in 2002.

In the years that followed, other significant agreements were abandoned, including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which Washington terminated in 2019 while blaming Russia for noncompliance.

Grand stated, alluding to the Barack Obama-era pact with Russia to limit the number of warheads, missiles, bombers, and launchers, that "regarding disarmament, it's all in ruins, save from New Start."