4 reasons why Russia won't use nuclear weapons and how many nuclear weapons does Russia have

On 27 February, Putin ordered Russia to move nuclear forces to a ‘special mode of combat duty’, which has a significant meaning in terms of the protocols to launch nuclear weapons from Russia. According to Russian nuclear weapons experts, Russia’s command and control system cannot transmit launch orders in peacetime, so increasing the status to ‘combat’ allows a launch order to go through and be put into effect.

Putin reminded the world that Russia “remains one of the most powerful nuclear states” and he threatened “consequences you have never faced in your history” for “anyone who tries to interfere with us,” a clear nuclear threat to anyone who might come to Ukraine’s aid.

How many nuclear weapons does Russia have?

Russia has 5,977 nuclear warheads, the devices that trigger a nuclear explosion, though this includes about 1,500 that are retired and set to to be dismantled. Of the remaining 4,500 or so, most are considered strategic nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, or rockets, which can be targeted over long distances. These are the weapons usually associated with nuclear war.

Nine countries have nuclear weapons:

China (350 nuclear warheads), France (290), India (160), Israel (90), North Korea (20), Pakistan (165), Russia (5977), USA (5428), UK (225)

1- Putin told his top defense officials to put Russian nuclear forces on “special combat readiness,” a heightened alert status that could raise new dangers. The Biden administration did the right thing by not raising its alert levels in response, which could have led to Russian escalation. Instead, U.S. ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield rightly criticized Putin for “another escalatory and unnecessary step that threatens us all.”

2- Any movement to ready and deploy Russian nuclear weapons would be seen and monitored by US and others’ satellites, which can see through cloud cover and at night.

3- Putin must be aware of the international backlash that using nuclear weapons in Ukraine would cause. A nuclear attack, depending on the size, could kill tens of thousands to millions of people in a country that has no nuclear weapons because it gave them back to Russia in 1994. The Bomb has not been used in combat for 77 years and its use now would be devastating not only to Russia but to global peace and security.

4- It assumed that if Russia were to use nuclear weapons it would do so in its attack on Ukraine, not to attack a NATO state which could trigger Article 5 of the Washington Treaty and set off a full NATO response. In such an attack, short range, lower yield ‘battlefield’ nuclear weapons of which there are thought to be more than 1,000 in reserve would be the most likely used.

Unfortunately, in Russia, as in the Unites States, the president has unilateral authority to launch nuclear weapons. This must change.