New fear of nuclear conflict coming in the Ukraine war? The Stats you should know

Amid the ongoing dramatic escalation of east-west tensions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the world has now woken up to a new fear of nuclear conflict coming into play in the Ukraine war. This comes on the fourth day of Russia's invasion. Taking extreme levels of steps, President Putin ordered his military to put Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces on high alert. On the same day, Russia's ally, Belarus' government, approved a referendum that would allow Russia to station nuclear weapons on Belarus' territory.

Putin’s nuclear order came at a meeting between the president, the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the general staff of the armed forces of Russia, Valery Gerasimov. Putin has pinned the blame for this decision on the aggressive statements by NATO leaders and the economic sanctions imposed against Russia. The sanctions include the freezing of major Russian banks and influential people in Putin’s inner circle, financing of weapons for Ukraine and the blackout of Russian state media outlets Sputnik and Russia Today from European Union territory.

Speaking on state television on Sunday, he said: "As you can see, not only do Western countries take unfriendly measures against our country in the economic dimension - illegitimate sanctions that everyone knows about. But even the highest-ranking officials of leading NATO countries are allowing themselves to make aggressive statements in relation to our country. For this reason, I order the minister of defence and the chief of general staff to put deterrent forces on special combat duty. "

The United States and Russia have the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world, by far. They include weapons that can be delivered by aircraft, submarines, and land-based ballistic missiles. Putin's extreme decision has raised the fear that the Russian invasion of Ukraine could lead to nuclear warfare. Expectations of a potential nuclear war between the two nations are arising.

But Why?

First, understand what "NUCLEAR WEAPONS ON ALERT" means?

The weapons’ alert level is central to their role in deterring attacks. The idea is that being prepared to respond on short notice makes an enemy less likely to attack in the first place and risk retaliation that would do incalculable damage.

Have a look at how many nukes Russia has. Take a look at the US "nuclear weapons" as well:

With a total inventory of 5977 nuclear weapons, Russia possesses the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world. It owns around 48% of all nuclear warheads in the world. The Putin-led country has more than 1,500 warheads deployed as land, sea, and air-based weapons and nearly 3,000 in reserve. As per a report in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Russia has developed a variety of ways to deploy these warheads, including land-based missiles capable of reaching the US, submarine-based missiles, and bombs and missiles that could be delivered by aircraft. The Russian Navy operates 10 nuclear-powered nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) of two classes: five Delta IV (Project 667BRDM) and five Borei (Project 955), two of which are improved Borei-A (Project 955A) submarines.

It is worth noting that Russia always maintains the readiness of its land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, at all times. The silo-based ICBMs include the SS-18, SS-19, SS-27 Mod 1, SS-27 Mod 2, and the mobile ICBMs include the SS-25, SS-27 Mod 1, and SS-27 Mod 2. Last year, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov declared that 95 percent of Russia’s strategic missile forces are continuously ready for combat use. Russia stores its nuclear weapons at approximately 40 permanent storage sites across the country, including about 10 national-level central storage sites. The Russian president is the only person who can order a nuclear strike.

After Russia and the US, China is the third country to have a large nuclear arsenal. It has around 350 weapons, which amounts to less than a tenth of the American total. While France comes fourth in the world when it comes to nuclear arms stock, with 290 weapons, the largest number in western Europe.

The United States, on the other hand, had a stockpile of 3,750 active and inactive nuclear warheads, as well as approximately 2,000 retired and awaiting dismantlement warheads. Meanwhile, the US's NATO ally, the United Kingdom, has somewhere around 255 nuclear warheads in its arsenal for deployment on four Vanguard-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. The US owns around 42% of all nuclear warheads in the world.

Is Ukraine nuclear-armed?

Ukraine had the third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, trailing only Russia and the United States. Ukraine inherited a large number of nuclear weapons after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 but decided to de-nuclearise under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which offered security assurances from the US, UK, and Russia. It surrendered an arsenal of around 5,000 missiles and bombs in 1994 in exchange for security guarantees from Russia and the West.