Putin’s European nuke target identified as Russia can ‘punch hole through NATO defence’

As a Russian invasion of Ukraine appears to be edging closer, with 100,000 of its troops stationed at the border, the US is scrambling to prevent an attack. President Joe Biden has reportedly put 8,500 troops on “high alert”, and he is said to be considering deploying up to 50,000 troops should Russia attack. But while the US plans to counter Russia’s military aggression, Brandon Weichert, founder of The Weichert Report: An Online Journal of Geopolitics, has sent Washington a stark warning.

Threats of nuclear war have not been seriously laid bare since way back in the 1960s during the Cold War.

But with tensions escalating over Ukraine, those fears have been brought to the surface once again.

Mr Weichert told Express.co.uk: “The US should always be worried about Russia’s stockpile of nuclear weapons – particularly the imbalances that presently exist between the US arsenal and that of Russia.”

In fact, Russia’s nuclear stockpile tallies in at 6,257, while the US only has 5,550.

Mr Weichert added: “Since former President Barack Obama signed the New START Treaty with Moscow in 2011, Russia has been able to not only modernise their nuclear weapons arsenal – notably their non-strategic nuclear weapons (medium-range nukes).

“But they have been able to outbuild the Americans whose nuclear weapons policy since the end of the Cold War has been half-hearted, lacking vision, and based on this utopian notion that nuclear war will kill everyone.

“So, better to ignore nuclear weapons and not invest properly in their maintenance and expansion lest we suffer a nuclear war.”

New START is a nuclear arms reduction treaty signed between Russia and the US back in 2010.

Its formal name is the Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms.

It puts limits and constraints on strategic Russian arms, including intercontinental-range nuclear weapons.

But Mr Weichert did not seem to think that this held back Russia’s nuclear potential.

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And Mr Weichert explained that Russia is not afraid to use these terrifying weapons.

He said: “Should Moscow think war is their only remaining option, these weapons would be launched forthwith against neighbouring Poland and the other NATO states.

“There are presently few active defences against these weapons because they are shorter range and reaction time for defences is significantly reduced (which is why the Russians favour these systems).”

And this warning also comes after the US reportedly sent spy planes to the Russia-Ukraine border to see if Russia was considering deploying nuclear weapons.

The New York Times reported that the US Air Force has been flying RC-135 Rivet Joint planes to eavesdrop on Russian ground commanders’ communications.

And Russian analyst Andrei Ostalski said Russia might even be poised to use these nuclear weapons and trigger a ”‘nuclear Armageddon”.
He also predicted that a Russian invasion was invasion “highly likely”.

He told BBC News: “I think it’s kind of a bluff that they found Russian deputies and political commentators openly discussing now that if push comes to shove then Mr Putin will be prepared even to bring the world through the brink of nuclear armageddon.”