The Russian ambassador to Belarus, Boris Gryzlov, said Sunday that Russian tactical nuclear weapons will be placed in western Belarus, near its border with NATO members.
According to The Associated Press, Gryzlov said the nuclear weapons will be “moved up close to the Western border of our Union State.” The union state refers to the combined territories of Russia and Belarus.
Belarus neighbors Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania, making the country’s border with NATO territory nearly 800 miles. “It will expand our defense capability, and it will be done regardless of all the noise in Europe and the United States,” Gryzlov added.
Gryzlov’s comments came after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he will be deploying tactical nukes to Belarus in response to the UK providing Ukraine with depleted uranium ammunition for its British-made tanks. The Russian leader said a facility to store the weapons should be completed by July 1.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Friday that Russia might also deploy strategic nuclear weapons, which have a much higher nuclear yield than tactical warheads. “Putin and I will decide and introduce here, if necessary, strategic weapons, and they must understand this, the scoundrels abroad, who today are trying to blow us up from inside and outside,” Lukashenko said.
Tactical nuclear weapons can range between 0.3 and 170 kilotons (the yield of the bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima was 15 kilotons), while strategic warheads can go over 1,000 kilotons. The US has about 100 B-61 tactical nuclear bombs deployed in Europe under NATO’s nuclear sharing program.
When justifying his decision to send nukes to Belarus, Putin pointed to NATO nuclear sharing program. “The United States has been doing this for decades. They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries,” he said. Under NATO nuclear sharing, there are US B-61 nukes in Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Maybe the use of 0.3 kilotons is an adequate response to the use of depleted uranium but what could be a fair target? Perhaps some military training grounds in West Ukraine? The use of 170 kilotons would be justified only in case of NATO direct aggression against Belarus or Russia.
“US wargames predict that a conflict involving use of tactical nuclear weapons will quickly spiral out of control. A Princeton University simulation of a US-Russian conflict that begins with the use of a tactical nuclear weapon predicts rapid escalation that would leave more than 90 million people dead and injured.”
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/tactical-nuclear-weapons#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20has%20about,between%200.3%20and%20170%20kilotons.
It sounds reasonable. Who wants to volunteer to go first?
There are different opinions about that.
Of course there are. And I bet they come from those who possess “tactical” nukes. A survivable nuclear war with small nukes. Sure, why not.
lol.
Forget about Gandhi’s “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind!” A nuclear weapon for a nuclear weapon makes the whole world uninhabitable. But don’t you worry. We maintain our moral superiority here because we’re fighting for “democracy and freedom.” …Blech… Barf… Blarg(h)… Man! Sometimes I can’t even keep my own rhetoric down. (Sarcasm alert)
I don’t think this is a big issue. I’m not sure Blinken can find “west” on a map anyway.
Well, he has other people who can.
The hypocrisy of the West knows no bounds and are going to get a lot of people killed. https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/04/no_author/no-more-double-standards-and-impunity-west-provokes-russia-result-nukes-in-belarus-on-natos-borders/
“The US has about 100 B-61 tactical nuclear bombs deployed in Europe under NATO’s nuclear sharing program.”
I was concerned until I saw it was under “NATO’s nuclear sharing plan”. When you use quaint phases like that it makes you feel like they’re just neighbors exchanging a cup of sugar. Carry on.
lol.
Clearly, Russia sees the introduction of battlefield nukes as portentous. Their answer to the Q, “Will the Nazis chance the final barbarity?” is, by these lights, “Yes”.
In other news, Igor Girkin has been very outspoken against the Kremlin lately. He’ll probably die of a “heart attack” soon:
“I’m not afraid to say that we are heading towards military defeat,” Girkin said, adding that the Russian economy, military, and political system were unprepared for such a “long, protracted war.”
He claimed that the Russian media “glosses over” the war’s detrimental effects on the country.
https://www.businessinsider.com/moscow-headed-military-defeat-commander-igor-girkin-russian-fighter-ukraine-2023-4?r=US&IR=T
Girkin wrote in a lengthy Telegram post on Saturday that Shoigu’s announcement does not go far enough to substantially help Russian forces. He wrote that the “multiple” increases in munitions does not compare to the more significant consumption of them.
“Accordingly, in order for the troops to be able to use this weapon ‘not artificially,’ it is necessary to increase the output by an order (orders),” Girkin wrote, who also accused Shoigu and other Russian military leaders of being “idiots” who “do not understand what they say and write.”
https://www.newsweek.com/former-russian-commander-mocks-idiots-leading-putins-war-ukraine-1791998
Gee, what a surprise. Wash. put bases all over the world, many around Russia and China, continues to expand NATO and keeps the war in Ukraine going until the last Ukrainian is dead, and now sending over the depleted uranium weapons. Here’s a link to what happened in Iraq with those weapons: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/19/us-depleted-uranium-weapons-civilian-areas-iraq
Here’s more links as to how bad those weapons contaminate the environment and cause horrible birth defects: https://merip.org/2020/09/birth-defects-and-the-toxic-legacy-of-war-in-iraq/
The assessment from the IAEA:
https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/iaearole.pdf
The view from Kosovo where NATO expended about 30,000 rounds of depleted uranium shells:
And:
https://www.dw.com/en/uranium-risks-haunt-kosovo-survivors/a-16366645
This is not to claim that there is no risk at all, but to make it clear that the risk is so low as to make assessment of the actual effects very difficult – i.e. this is not the kind of pollution that makes the area a no-go zone – the risk from all the unexploded ordinance is far higher as is the risk from many of the other very toxic pollutants that you will find on a modern battlefield.
I also tried to access: “DC Think Tank: US Should Threaten
War, Regime Change in Iran” by Larison, but got this:
403 FORBIDDEN instead. What goes?
Who knows?…..
Here’s the article: https://www.theinteldrop.org/2023/03/31/centrist-dc-think-tank-us-should-threaten-war-regime-change-in-iran/
I got it, with no problem. Thanks for the link.
But, you might be on someones radar Lily…
I doubt I’m that important since most people agree with my positions anyway.
🙂
I recently had a problem with 403 errors on some sites I run. Had to have my web host undo some changes they made that affected all hosted sites, some of them with that error. Something to do with the rules that go in the .htaccess file on a site.
So, did you also get the 403 FORBIDDEN?
Nope. But 403 FORBIDDEN tends to be an intermittent error. Trying to fix it myself on my own sites, I had trouble reproducing it — sometimes it would happen, sometimes it wouldn’t. Finally had to ask the web host to fix it.
We appreciate all that you do TK, very much so.
NATO sends these horrible weapons that contaminate the environment and can cause birth defects as well. Wash. approves and probably also supplies them as well. Remember AGENT ORANGE? Here’s a link to the birth defects still happening in Vietnam. Behold and weep, this is what Americans are taxed for: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=agent+organge+birth+defects&iax=images&ia=images
“The state, I call it, where all are poison-drinkers, the good and
the bad: the state, where all lose themselves, the good and the bad:
the state, where the slow suicide of all — is called “life.”
Just see these superfluous ones! They steal the works of the inventors and the treasures of the wise. Culture, they call their theft — and everything
becometh sickness and trouble unto them! Just see these superfluous
ones! Sick are they always; they vomit their bile and call it a newspaper. They devour one another, and cannot even digest themselves.”
–FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE — Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“Russia to Put Nukes Near Belarus’ Western Border: Envoy Belarus borders NATO members Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania”
Believe it or not, words do matter. Latvia, Lithuania, and especially Poland have constantly made hyperbolic statements about provoking further military operations against Russia. These small nations are onboard with military operations as long as America does their
fighting and provides all of the weapons.
NATO is now placing 300,000 mostly American troops on
the boarder of Russia in these NATO countries.
Each of these nations are NATO members and yet have a misunderstanding of article 5. If they attack another country like Russia all bets are off and article 5 is moot.
Poland has been especially aggressive of late. Poland has been sending lethal aid to Ukraine and is expanding their army by leaps and bounds. The Poles are extremely hyperbolic as long as America has their back. The Polish President, Andrzej Duda has increased Polish / NATO troop strength on the boarder of Belarus and has made statements that are quite incendiary about attacking Belarus.
Perhaps Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland fail to realize that America is an aging country on the verge of bankruptcy. America has a $1.5 Trillion problem in over spending projected each year and may soon have to go the way of England in 1947. England also went bankrupt and withdrew from major military commitments on the world stage.
A $32 Trillion debt is about to become a $50 Trillion
debt leading to hyperinflation and bankruptcy.
It is easy to mouth off and provoke others on the playground when a big brother is standing behind you. What if your big brother was a senile feeble old man that could barely walk? Would you still mouth off and provoke other children or would you try to get along in a win-win situation.
Poland provides most of its own weapons procuring from among others South Korea, the Baltic states have donated more as a share of GDP than the US.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1303450/bilateral-aid-to-ukraine-in-a-percent-of-donor-gdp/
No NATO is contemplating a plan that would put 300,000 troops on high alert – i.e. these troops will be able to deploy within 15 to 30 days – the US presence in Europe is going to be increased but it is unlikely that they will be mostly from the US.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/29/those-300000-high-readiness-nato-troops-concept-not-reality/
https://romania.postsen.com/world/195166/NATO-could-send-300000-soldiers-to-the-border-with-Russia-POLITICO-reports.html
None of the NATO countries are planning to attack Russia even though the Polish ambassador to UK gave a different impression, it is important to know that he was corrected by the Polish government – so no plans to attack Russia.
Any sources for that rather remarkable claim?
I kind of doubt that they are in the dark about the financial difficulties of the US or even the wider west.
I believe that they are speaking for more support for Ukraine as they see that without this they will have to face the bully that is Putin and this is hence their best shot at containing him before the US’ attention is diverted to Taiwan or possibly eroded by financial difficulties.
Well OK