What if Vladimir Putin used nuclear weapons in Ukraine? - Al Jazeera English
President Vladimir Putin’s thinly veiled threat to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine if Russian “territorial integrity” is threatened has sparked deep discussion in the West as to how it would respond.In a televised address on Wednesday, the Russian leader said he was not bluffing about using nuclear weapons if Russian territories were threatened, as he announced a partial military mobilisation that would see some 300,000 reserve forces sent to fight in Ukraine.Analysts are not convinced that Putin is willing to be the first to unleash nuclear weapons since the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945.Analysts say Russia’s goal in using a tactical nuclear bomb in Ukraine would be to frighten it into surrender or submission to negotiations, and divide the country’s Western backers.Experts say the West would have no option but to respond to a Russian nuclear attack, and that a response should come from NATO as a group, rather than the US alone.The US has positioned about 100 of its own tactical nuclear weapons in NATO countries and could respond in kind against Russian forces.