UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said that a nuclear war is now “back within the realm of possibility.”
The comments come as Russia has once against raised the alert of its nuclear forces amid their ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
“Raising the alert of Russian nuclear forces is a bone-chilling development,” Guterres said this week.
“The prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility.
“It’s time to stop the horror unleashed on the people of Ukraine, and get on the path of diplomacy and peace.”
Since Russia put its nuclear forces on high alert at the start of the invasion in response to Western sanctions, there has been much speculation about whether Vladimir Putin would be willing to use these weapons.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said last week that the Russian President was bluffing.
"I think that the threat of nuclear war is a bluff. It's one thing to be a murderer. It's another to commit suicide," Zelenskyy told German newspaper Die Zeit. https://t.co/wJoJMjiRpW
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) March 10, 2022
However, according to Insider, Retired Brigadier General Kevin Ryan is “very concerned” about the nuclear threat from Russia, saying that Putin may use a “small nuclear weapon” to keep the West out of Ukraine.
Ryan said that winning this war is “everything for [Putin] now,” adding, “If he doesn’t accomplish this, his own people will take him out.”