This is the last move in this poker game that we hope is a lie around the atomic issue raised by the Russo-Ukrainian war. Vladimir Putin has been engaged in nuclear blackmail for several weeks in the face of the difficulties encountered by his troops on the Ukrainian front.
Consequently, to protect itself from possible threats from the Kremlin, Poland asked the United States to place warheads on its territory. However, the proposal seems essentially symbolic, as underlined by the guardiansuch an initiative would be unwise from a strictly military point of view.
“Nuclear Exchange”
Before getting to the bottom of the case, it is necessary to consider its seriousness. In fact, it is the Polish president himself, Andrzej Duda, who revealed the project. He spoke on Wednesday with Gazeta Poland a “real opportunity” for “nuclear exchange”. It would be up to the United States to entrust the nuclear weapons to its Polish ally, who would then be in charge of transporting them in their own planes, with their own pilots.
“We spoke with US leaders to find out if the United States was considering that possibility. The problem is on the table,” added the head of state.
Yet the shame is palpable among American leaders. contacted by guardianThe White House has thus ensured that it “has no knowledge” of such a track, referring to Poland.
The obstacles of the project.
It must be said that the issue is, to say the least, sensitive and encounters two major stumbling blocks. The first is diplomatic: the device would constitute a violation of the 1997 nuclear non-proliferation treaty by which the United States undertook not to implant these missiles on the soil of the latest NATO members.
However, this problem is not insurmountable. Vladimir Putin, loudly imagining using “all weapons within his reach” to defend his nation’s alleged interests, himself pays little attention to international law on the matter. In addition, the Polish request must be understood as the mirror effect of a constitutional reform that took place in February in neighboring Belarus. Alexander Lukashenko’s dictatorship can now deploy Russian nuclear weapons on its territory.
The second stumbling block, military and technological, is more detrimental to the proposed program. After questioning the experts, the British newspaper stresses that such an American export to Poland would be counterproductive. In fact, to the extent that the United States already has warheads on the continent, the benefit in terms of deterrence is doubtful. And bringing these weapons closer to Russian borders would only make them more vulnerable, more exposed to Russian attack.
The CIA warning
In all likelihood, the United States should therefore stick to its hundred nuclear weapons shipped to Europe. This is found in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Turkey. The entirety of this atomic herd is made up of B61 bombs, a model originally obsolete but updated and now adapted to modern devices.
Therefore, the symbolic Polish suggestion is not likely to change the situation concretely, but questions the response to oppose the Russian danger. On Tuesday, CIA Director William Burns warned CBS News: “A cornered Putin, who feels his back is against the wall, can be dangerous and reckless.”
One of his predecessors at the head of the US agency, General David Petraeus, did not go away on Monday on ABC, delivering his solution to dispel the danger.
If the Russians were to use atomic weapons in one form or another, the United States and NATO would “eliminate all identifiable Russian forces on the battlefield in Ukraine, Crimea and even the Black Sea,” he warned. However, such a direct confrontation between the Americans, the Atlantic Alliance and Russia would represent a point of no return in the spiral of the current war.
Source: BFM TV
