“Learned something again” podcast: Russia is threatening with these nuclear weapons

Is a nuclear strike threatening in the Ukraine war? Russia’s President Putin brought up this possibility a few days ago. After all, Russia is the largest nuclear power in the world. Moscow has several thousand nuclear weapons that could be deployed in a very short time.

They are declarations of war like in the Cold War. Russian President Putin threatened a nuclear attack in late February, three days after Russia attacked Ukraine. Although he did not specifically mention nuclear weapons in his order, deterrence forces also mean nuclear weapons. And Russia is very well equipped with that. The country is the largest nuclear power in the world. According to current figures from Federation of American Scentists Russia currently has 5,977 nuclear warheads. The US has 5,428 nuclear weapons, just a little less than Russia – and significantly more than Europe. Around 600 nuclear warheads are stored in European countries, but around 100 of them belong to the Americans, and 15 of them are in Büchel, Germany.

Russian and American weapons fall into two main categories, strategic and non-strategic. The strategic weapons are intended as a deterrent, they should prevent the United States from attacking Russia, explains Moritz Kütt in the ntv podcast “Learned something again”. Kütt is a researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. “In principle, they sit on rockets and can fly to the USA, sit in submarines or can be loaded onto airplanes.”

In addition to the approximately 2,500 strategic weapons, Russia also has 2,000 non-strategic weapons, also known as tactical weapons. “They could also be used in regional conflicts. Hasn’t happened yet, but that’s what they were originally intended for during the Cold War.” In addition, there are 1,500 weapons in the Russian arsenal that are currently intended for disarmament, explains Kütt. “They’ve been out of service for a long time and are now in a warehouse because Russia can’t keep up with disarmament so quickly.”

Every year the number of nuclear weapons decreases. Russia and the US are gradually scrapping their arsenals. But around 4,500 nuclear warheads are still operational in Russia. And these are not ancient Cold War systems. Not only Moscow, but also the USA and China have invested a lot of money in their nuclear equipment and modernized it in recent years. Although many nations promised to reduce their arsenals in the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The US and Russia also just renewed the New Start arms limitation treaty in January.

Russia has the most modern weapons

In recent years, Russia has pumped billions into its military and, above all, modernized its aerospace industry. “In Russia we can assume that most weapons are no more than ten years old and the weapons are always maintained, disassembled and assembled. At the same time, Russia recently said that 90 percent of the arsenal has been modernized, that is, with new ones capabilities was supplied,” says the peace researcher.

Russia has modern weapons such as the S-400 air defense system and the Kalibr cruise missile. Also, new hypersonic missiles that Putin has touted as “invincible.” According to the Kremlin, it was only in mid-February that Russia had tested a new Kinzhal-type hypersonic missile and also nuclear-capable missiles.

Warheads can be installed not only in rockets, but in all possible delivery systems. Accordingly, they are of different sizes, explains Moritz Kütt. “The strategic weapons are built into ICBMs. Or cruise missiles, which would then be flown by bombers close to the United States and then launched from a distance of 1,000 to 2,000 kilometers. Other weapons are on shorter-range missiles, that’s how it works around 150 to 300 kilometers. There are also those with 2000 kilometers. They are launched from the ground, from aircraft or from land. In Russia there are also nuclear missile defense systems.”

ICBMs stationed near Ukraine

The nuclear weapons are spread all over Russia, most of them in the European part, says Kütt. There are seven arms depots there. There are also almost 20 other smaller arms depots in the country, for example at ports or airports – depending on whether the weapons are to be used on boats or in rockets. ICBMs are believed to be stationed at 12 locations across Russia, according to the Federation of American Scentists. One of them is in Koselsk, only about 300 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

“The maximum range of Russian weapons is between 10 and 15,000 km. In principle, you can reach almost any place on earth that you want, at least from Russian soil. Russia is also quite large and they are stationed in such a way that they then take off from the respective side or they fly over the North Pole.” The USA could also hit almost any place in the world with its weapons.

Putin cannot push the “red button” alone. Before Russian nuclear weapons are fired, an entire chain of command must be put in place. There are a total of three atomic suitcases that contain the codes. The Russian president has one, the defense minister has one, and the chief of staff has one. At least two of the three suitcases are required, the codes in them only work in combination. This is set up to insure against mistakes in the use of nuclear weapons. The president comes first, he passes on the order for the use of nuclear weapons in encrypted form with the suitcase.

Nuclear weapons deployable within minutes

Russia’s nuclear weapons are essentially always on standby. “There are nuclear weapons that can be used within a few minutes,” says Moritz Kütt in the podcast. “These ICBMs, these strategic weapons, are part of it. Both the American side and the Russian side are planning to be able to react to an enemy attack in a few minutes. The flight time for a missile from Russia to the USA or vice versa is about half an hour.” Within Europe, the flight time is only a few minutes. “However, these weapons are not on the same operational readiness level. The weapons in Germany, for example, are at the Büchel air base, but it is not the case that the aircraft are waiting for the order to be used with their engines running. The same applies to units with short-range missiles.”

Nuclear weapons are designed to inflict maximum destruction. When an atomic bomb explodes, it creates a tremendous blast, people die, buildings are destroyed. Heat is also generated, causing fire and burns. And the radiation kills cells, triggers disease and causes genetic damage for generations. Strategic nuclear weapons are more destructive than the smaller, tactical warheads.

“The Russian weapons are almost all significantly larger than the weapons that were used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And bigger then means something like a factor of 10 to a factor of 50 stronger than the weapons there,” Kütt points out.

So far no movement observed in nuclear weapons

A nuclear strike today would have consequences we don’t want to imagine. At the moment, however, experts do not fear that Putin will actually press the nuclear button. It also fits that experts like Moritz Kütt, but also countries like Great Britain, do not currently see any troop movements in relation to nuclear weapons.

Kütt fears that a spiral of escalation will set in motion if both sides misunderstand each other. “Maybe no attack was planned at all, maybe it’s not an attack at all, but maybe it looks like it. And then the other country tries to retaliate with nuclear weapons. But effectively that’s the actual attack. And we see a nuclear exchange between these two States, which of course also affects Europe.”

So far, Russia has never used a nuclear weapon in a war. If Putin does in fact launch nuclear weapons, he will very likely have to reckon with a response from the West. But when nuclear-armed states wage nuclear war, they risk being wiped out themselves.