Will Vladimir Putin use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war? The Russian president said he was ready to use “all means” in his arsenal against the West, which he accused of wanting to “destroy” Russia. But when the Kremlin evokes nuclear weapons, it is not necessarily about dropping a bomb of mass destruction.
“Russian military doctrine provides that the tactical nuclear weapon” is part of “the infranuclear, it is a conventional weapon like any other,” explains Alain Bauer, professor of criminology at the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, on BFMTV.
In France, the so-called classical or conventional weapons are weapons “that are not of ‘mass destruction’, that is, they are not biological, chemical, nuclear or radiological,” explains the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Therefore, in Russia, this arsenal may contain nuclear weapons.
Strategic nuclear weapon and tactical nuclear weapon
In Russian military doctrine, in effect, a distinction is made between two types of nuclear weapons. On the one hand, there is the strategic nuclear weapon, which is the nuclear bomb as everyone fears, which is rather linked to a doctrine of deterrence. And there is the tactical nuclear weapon, considered less powerful.
When the Russians talk about nuclear weapons, it is not necessarily “the weapon of the end of the world, the strategic nuclear weapon”, explains Alain Bauer.
“Tactical nukes have a range of 500 kilometers. Strategic nukes” can do Moscow-Washington, explained Ulysse Gosset, foreign policy columnist for BFMTV. “In fact, there are so-called tactical weapons that are defined as weaker than strategic weapons, but they are still very powerful nuclear weapons,” he said. remembered in our antenna Lova Rinelassociate researcher at the Foundation for Strategic Research.
“The distinction between tactical and strategic in terms of power or use is meaningless, they are still nuclear bombs and their use will have dramatic consequences not only on the ground and at the international level. Heads of state can give the order to use them.” ”, explained Colonel Michel Goya for his part.
“You can use the tactical nuclear weapon because it is a conventional element”
But for the Russians “tactical nuclear weapons are a natural part of life as it was for us. I remind you that (in France) we had Plutos and Hades until the 1980s”, underlines Alain Bauer. They were “so-called tactical” missiles whose essential mission was to nuclearize the Germans if the Red Army broke through to the other side of the Iron Curtain.
Since then, these French weapons have been destroyed: “Taking advantage of the consequences of developments in the strategic context, France announced its decision to abandon the ground-ground component of its nuclear deterrent force on February 22, 1996,” writes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. .
But Vladimir Putin could, he, use this type of weapon “in the event of an offensive”, declares Alain Bauer. “He can use the tactical nuke because it’s a conventional item, it’s normal.”
On Wednesday, a White House adviser said the United States had “over the months” become “increasingly concerned” about the possibility of a possible nuclear attack by Russia in the war in Ukraine. Although several Russian officials assured that Moscow was not going to use nuclear weapons, the New York Times revealed on Wednesday that Russian generals had raised in mid-October the possibility of a tactical nuclear attack on Ukraine.
Source: BFM TV
