Putin has announced that his military will be training in the use of tactical nuclear weapons in his war against Ukraine. There has not been enough education in the news media about what these tactical nuclear weapons are, and our ignorance is dangerous.

Tactical nuclear weapons include air bombs, war-heads for short-range missiles and artillery munitions. Since they are used against specific targets, they do not have the widespread effect of a nuclear bomb, but they are still many times larger than non-nuclear weapons and can have serious long-term effects. According to the Scientific American, a tactical nuclear weapon would produce a fireball, shock waves and deadly radiation that would cause long-term health damage in survivors. Radioactive fallout would contaminate air, soil, water and the food supply. Ukranians have some understanding of these effects after the 1986 nuclear reactor meltdown.

The Russian Iskander ballistic missile range is 500 kilometers. The U.S. also has about 100 nuclear “gravity bombs” around Europe. If his war in Ukraine is going badly, Putin could resort to a tactical nuclear weapon out of desperation. The U.S. could retaliate with our tactical nuclear weapons already in Europe, and this could escalate into World War III, this time as an all-out nuclear war. A nuclear war would not only destroy the cities and military targets, and result in radioactive clouds that would move across the earth, sickening and killing countless people, but the resulting fires would send enough soot and smoke into the stratosphere to block the sun for at least 10 years. No sun, no crops; no crops, no food. There would be massive starvation for both humans and animal life throughout the world.

It is time for us to face that the “unthinkable” is actually the reality, and to start to “think outside the box.”

There will be a public forum on Wednesday, June 12 at 6:30 at Forbes Library in Northapton: “The Ukrainian War – Where is it Heading?” Speakers will address both sides of the issues of whether to continue arming Ukraine or to urge Ukraine to negotiate a settlement with Russia. The program can also be viewed on Forbes’s YouTube channel.

Cynthia Loring MacBain

Southampton