The use of nuclear arsenal in wars?

The Nuclear weapon has never been an option in war as both the West and Russia have openly declared that it is only “a weapon of deterrence”. This was what I was taught by my Professor of Philosophy, Late Arthur J. Munk when I was a scholarship student at Albion College, Albion, Michigan in the mid 1960’s. All the so called “nuclear capacity “States, and there are some 9 nations of the world, including two rouge States today, have proclaimed the they would only take recourse in this option as a weapon of last resort, but never to be used. The use of nuclear weapons in Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine would only backfire on the Russian leader, an expert has said.

Dmitri Alperovitch, who chairs US-based geopolitics think-tank Silverado Policy Accelerator, said Putin's attempts to use the threat of nuclear weapons as a blackmail tool have so far been unsuccessful. He added that if you look at the trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, military equipment the US and allies have been opposed to sending to Ukraine - such as tanks, longer-range missiles, and other capabilities - have been provided over time. Mr Alperovitch told GB News: "Ultimately, using a nuclear weapon does not actually achieve any strategic objectives for Russia other than make the situation much, much worse for [Putin]." Putin has warned NATO previously not to go too far in its military support for Ukraine or the military alliance would risk a conflict with Russia which could turn nuclear. Russia has carried out tactical nuclear weapons drills inside its own territory and with key ally, Belarus. Moscow sought to justity those moves by describing them as a response to the West considering sending NATO troops to Ukraine and letting Kyiv target Russia with longer-range weapons. Heather Williams, Senior Fellow at US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told PBS reliance on nuclear threats is an "enduring trend" from Russia. She added: "Russian leadership may be assuming it has more at stake in Ukraine than NATO and nuclear threats are one means of signaling its commitment to winning the war in the hopes of scaring off Western intervention." Putin has said Russia doesn't need to use nuclear weapons to win its war in Ukraine, but he warned escalation could lead to "grave consequences". The Russian leader said he could see no security threats that would warrant using nuclear weapons, but indicated Russia was mulling changes to its nuclear doctrine. Russia describes its nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence and says it takes all necessary efforts to reduce the nuclear threat and prevent aggravating relations with other countries which could trigger military or nuclear conflicts. Senior Russian diplomat, Sergei Ryabkov, is reported to have argued that the war in Ukraine shows Russia's "nuclear deterrence in its traditional sense is not fully working", according to a report in Eurasianet. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week revealed the Kremilin was "clarifying" its nuclear doctrine, the official RIA news agency reported. Lavrov's comments came amid attempts by US President Joe Biden's Administration to downplay the significance of recent updates to the United States' Nuclear Weapons Employment Planning Guidance. It now recognises the possibility of coordinated nuclear challenges from Russia, China, and North Korea, according to Eurasianet. Russia has more than 5,500 nuclear warheads while the US has some 5,044. The US withdrew from an Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019. Russia has declared the deal to be "dead". What are nuclear weapons? They are extremely powerful explosives You might remember the words atoms and isotopes from science lessons - they're involved in the process of triggering a nuclear blast. The bombs get their energy from either splitting atoms or joining the tiny particles inside the atoms together. That's also why a nuclear bomb is sometimes called an atomic bomb. Hiroshima after an atomic bomb Image source,Getty Images Image caption, The US dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 Nuclear weapons release huge amounts of radiation - which can cause radiation sickness - so their actual impact lasts longer than the blast. But they've only ever been used twice in history - against Japan in 1945 during World War Two where they caused huge devastation and enormous loss of life. The radiation from the bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima lasted several months and killed an estimated 80,000 people. And the bomb dropped on Nagasaki killed more than 70,000 people. They haven't been detonated in war since then. Nine countries currently have nuclear weapons: the US, UK, Russia, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. Media caption, Nuclear weapons: Explained in numbers Who can develop them? In theory, pretty much anyone with the technology, intelligence and facilities. But whether countries are allowed to or not? That's a whole other issue. This is because of something called the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) - an agreement, external which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and promote disarmament. Mushroom cloud Image source,Getty Images Image caption, A mushroom cloud which is an effect of a nuclear explosion Since 1970, 191 states including the US, Russia, UK, France and China have joined the NPT. These five countries are called nuclear-weapon states - and are allowed to have weapons because they built and tested a nuclear explosive device before the treaty came into effect on 1 January 1967. Even though these countries have nuclear weapons, under the agreement, they have to reduce how many they have and can't keep them forever. Israel (which has never confirmed or denies the existence of its nukes), India and Pakistan have never joined the NPT, and North Korea left in 2003. So where does Iran fit in? Iran started its nuclear programme in the 1950s and has always insisted its nuclear energy programme is peaceful. But there have been suspicions it was being used as a cover to develop nuclear weapons, which prompted the UN Security Council, US and EU to impose crippling sanctions from 2010. What are sanctions and why do countries use them? This led to an agreement in 2015 between Iran and other big powers, in which Iran signed a deal to scale back its nuclear energy programme in exchange for trade, but President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in May 2018.