Nuclear War Soon ?

Lots of action around Ukraine as the first anniversary of the war draws near after the US president visited Ukraine and spoke in Poland. Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgio Maloney was in Kiev she promised support but not fighter jets and now Japan wants to lead the world in fighting Russian aggression as Tokyo puts it they have promised five and a half billion dollars in Aid to Ukraine and they are also hosting an online G7 Summit with Zelensky like I said lots of action but the focus is still on China and the question still hangs will China give weapons to Russia?

Is Russia prepared to press the nuclear button how big is their Arsenal who controls it and why is it making the West nervous?

Why America may not be ready for a war ?

Meanwhile Afghanistan and Pakistan are fighting complete with gunfire. AI artificial intelligence is behaving like humans failing exams and threatening to break a marriage and South Korea is working on launching 6G.

Amid a power tassel in the indo-pacific between the US and China Australia’s intelligence Chief says they have busted a hive of spies operating in the country for years North Korea defends its recent ballistic missile launches as criticism by the United Nations Chief with quote unquote unfair and unbalanced and that Pyongyang has the right to self-defense after Nikki Haley another Indian American joins the race to the White House tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy announces his 2024 presidential campaign promising to bring Merit back and stop dependence on China.

No layoffs in Quake hit turkey the government has put a temporary ban and offering salary support in 10 provinces this is to minimize the economic impact from the country’s worst earthquake in modern history and South Korea’s fertility rate already the worlds’ lowest drops yet again to 0.78

China too battles a rapidly declining birth rate some provinces are now offering newlyweds 30 days of paid leave to boost its flagging population.

Xi Jinping is going to Russia. Is he going to join the war in Ukraine or will he try to be the Peacemaker ? will China give weapons to Russia the prospect has been making headlines

The West issuing warnings, the Americans and the Europeans and then the NATO Chief they have all told China to desist. Beijing has issued quick rebuttals but no Clarity on whether or not they’ll give weapons to Russia the Russian president has high hopes.

Putin is looking for a military alliance with China he spoke to Xi Jinping a few weeks ago this was a video call Putin said he wants deeper military ties with China and now China stopped diplomates in Moscow Wong Li met with key Russian officials the big highlight of the day was this Wong’s meeting with the Russian president himself, no long tables this time Wong Li was sitting close to President Putin he said China stars with Russia are Rock Solid.

Of course, we await the president of the Peoples’ Republic of China to pay a visit to Russia we agreed on this earlier.

Chinese Russian relations are mature and stable as a rock they have withstood various tests in a changing international situation the two leaders held a video meeting at the end of last year and outlined a top-level plan for a stronger bilateral relationship in the next stage.

Taking the relationship to the next stage well what is the next stage do you remember when Putin met Xi Jinping last year this was just before Russia invaded Ukraine, they had a meeting exactly one year ago and back then Russia and China had declared No Limits partnership they said their partnership had no limits and now they are talking about taking it to the next stage

Courtesy : Firstpost

Would that be Military Support?

Honestly, we don’t know but we can tell you that there are expectations Russia is counting on a steady support from China. What kind of support has it got so far?

Financial mostly China has been supporting Russia’s economy China has bought Russian oil and gas it has sold chips to Russian companies it has even shared technology with distinct military applications but now Russia wants more it wants Chinese military equipment

Reports say Moscow made the request last year Beijing did not oblige then but now they are rethinking at least that’s what the Western assessment is, that China is open to sharing lethal weapons with Russia the first warning came to the United States then the EU and now the NATO Chief has spoken this is what he said “ we are also increasingly concerned that China may be planning to provide legal support for Russia’s War”

Putin must not win that would show that aggression works and force is rewarded it will be dangerous for our own security and for the whole world so we must sustain and step up our support for Ukraine. we must give Ukraine what they need to win and Prevail as a sovereign independent nation in Europe.

So the possibility seems real but is Russia sure about Chinese weapons are there any good and Russia could check with Pakistan. Pakistan is a regular buyer of Chinese weapons or should I say a regular recipient since I’m not sure about the payments so Pakistan gets Chinese weapons among them are uav’s (Drones) unmanned aerial vehicles UAV’s or drones for military use now the Pakistani Fleet is fairly new but they are already looking for another shipment more drones why because some of the Chinese drones were broken.

Reports say the Pakistani army recently conducted an inspection and this is what they found critical equipment on the Chinese drones was broken we’ve not been able to independently verify this but we know enough about Chinese products and their quality issues to not be surprised by any of this and this is a digression but we had to lay it on the table if Russia is counting on Chinese weapons it should know what it’s signing up for.

Anyway coming back to the Russia China partnership we’ve told you about Putin’s expectations what about China’s expectations after all there are no free lunches even in a partnership with no limits so what does China want a boost in its stature perhaps, whether they give weapons or strike peace it will make them a major player in the Ukraine story Reports say China is exploring all possibilities one of them is a proposal for multi-party peace talks

The Chinese foreign minister says they’re worried that the conflict May spin out of control it’s been almost a year since the full escalation of the Ukraine crisis the International Community is watching the development closely China is deeply worried about the escalation of the conflict and the possible spiral out of control since the outbreak of the crisis China has taken an objective and impartial stance based on the Merit of the issue.

On Friday this war will complete one year China seems to be reflecting on the events so far the Russian offensive the outcome the Western response all of it Xi Jinping Consolidated his domestic power last year .

He secured a historic third term in office he installed more loyalists to top positions the Chinese president is ready to make new moves it seems whichever way he goes with Russia one thing is clear Beijing wants to play a bigger role in this war.

His travel dates for Russia are not out yet some Reports say it could happen in April or early May around the time when Russia celebrates Victory Day this is an annual holiday it commemorates Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the second world war

Xi Jinping could attend the festivities or visit before whenever he does the world will be watching. Now China may or may not want to play Peacemaker but do the stakeholders want peace will the Americans agree to a China broker deal will your crane be on board and will Russia play along considering what their president said yesterday Putin made a major announcement and brought Russia and the US one step closer to a nuclear Face-Off.

They can’t be stupid people they want to deliver us a strategic defeat while sneaking into a strategic nuclear object regarding this I have to say that Russia suspends its participation in the new start treaty let me repeat Russia does not abandon the treaty but suspend its participation in it.

What was that about the start treaty the Strategic arms reduction treaty that is the full form of start the Strategic arms reduction treaty Putin says he’s walking away from it and he chose his words carefully why it is such a big deal and what are the implications

What is the Treaty the United States and Russia are nuclear Powers there also Arch Rivals and they have massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons together they account for about 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads going by one estimate as of today Putin controls 5977 warheads and Biden has 5428.

Not all of them are available for use right away I’ll explain why in a bit but this is the legacy of the Cold War

The vast Arsenal was built during that period and that was a dangerous time there was an arms race between the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union they came dangerously close to a nuclear war both sides understood the risks so they signed a treaty it was called the start treaty.

It was designed to prevent a nuclear war it was first signed when the Soviet Union was still attacked then revised in 2011 and then extended in 2021 .

2021 this latest version is valid till 2026.

So has Russia withdrawn from the treaty Putin says he hasn’t he’s just decided to not meet Russia’s commitments and what are these commitments ? under Start Moscow and Washington agreed to not deploy more than 1550 strategic nuclear warheads 1550 not more than that and a maximum of 700 long-range missiles and bombers and how would you ensure compliance the deal allowed for inspections the US could inspect Russian sites and Russia could inspect the American facilities how many times up to 18 visits in one year.

But now Putin has walked out of it he Won’t implement the terms of The Pact and he blames Washington for his decisions both in statement made big headlines that he’s threatening a nuclear war and so on now Russia’s foreign Ministry has issued a statement a habit with me this is what it says

Washington must show political will make conscientious efforts for a general de-escalation and create conditions for the resumption of the full functioning of the treaty. they’re putting the onus on America and what was America’s response, it is calling Moscow’s move irresponsible the announcement by Russia that it’s suspending participation in new sort is deeply unfortunate and irresponsible uh we’ll be watching carefully see what Russia actually does what will be the immediate fall out of this new arms race could kick off Russia could deploy more nuclear weapons in America will be forced to match every move , the collapse of this treaty might seem sudden but it’s been years in the making inspections have been on hold since March 2020 first it was a pandemic and then the war in Ukraine.

American and Russian officials were supposed to meet last year face-to-face meeting was scheduled for the month of November but decided to postpone the meet and neither side has set a new date the US blames Russia it claims Moscow did not want to allow any inspections prepare those we send to war

Last month the US state Department made an announcement it said Russia was no longer complying with the treaty and now Putin has made it official no compliance with the start treaty Putin says Washington is trying to weaken Russia so he will not comply with any treaty that constrains Russia

The United Nations meanwhile says this could lead to a dangerous situation I will reiterate the secretary’s position which has been clear and that is that the US and the Russian Federation should resume the full implementation of the new Star treaty without delay the new start and successive bilateral treaties uh on strategic nuclear arms reduction between the two countries have provided security not only for Russia and the United States but for the entire

International Community but words and appeals won’t be enough and let’s be honest it’s all about the war in Ukraine it has become a proxy war between the United States and Russia.

The US and allies are trying to weaken Russia through sanctions and through armed supplies through Ukraine and Russia wants to hit back.

Putin wants all the advantage he can get and nuclear weapons are the ultimate advantage, so the war in Ukraine has just taken a dangerous turn nuclear weapons are now in the picture and the world seems quite afraid of Russia’s nuclear Arsenal which is interesting .

Why is an otherwise confident NATO so worked up about Russia how big is Russia’s Arsenal the biggest in the world and of course bigger than the United States who controls these weapons ?

Can Putin really take this beyond words and turn to nukes he thinks his country faces an existential threat and he sees the West as the enemy which is why the statements are worrying  our next report Dives deep into Russia’s nuclear Arsenal its Command Center and how it can be used this is the first lighting the first atomic test by the Soviet Union it was conducted at the secret site known as the arzamas 16.

The date was August 29 1949. The scientists knew their personal fate depended on the success of the test one of them later said had the test failed they would have all been shot.

For Moscow it was just the beginning throughout the Cold War it conducted more than 700 nuclear weapon tests and this is the Legacy it left behind modern day Russia has the world’s largest nuclear stockpile inherited from the Soviet Union the Soviet Union had around 40 000 Warheads. no country really needs so many Warheads to destroy the planet so Russia has reduced its inventory since as of last year Russia had about 5977 Warheads that’s the total these are divided into various categories about a thousand five hundred Warheads are said to be retired but they can still be used 2889 Warheads are in reserves and around 1 588 are strategic Warheads ready for immediate use

Russia is one of the few countries that have a nuclear Triad what does that mean it’s when a country can launch nuclear warheads using land-based missiles submarines and aircraft Russia can do it all so can India China and the US

Moscow has 812 Warheads loaded onto land-based ballistic missiles 576 Warheads can be launched via submarines and around 200 Warheads are located at air bases which house Russian bomber Jets that’s a lot of nukes and who controls these one-man President Vladimir Putin

If he so chooses, he can plunge the world into a nuclear catastrophe with the click of a button the button is in a briefcase which is with him at all times the briefcase is called the check it

It’s basically a communication device that links Putin to the top brass of the Russian military and the country’s rocket Force Putin could send a direct message via this briefcase to Russia’s general staff command and the reserve command units these units have the nuclear launch codes the order will ultimately trickle down to the Strategic rocket Force units they will then fire the nuclear warheads from Russia’s Triad of missiles submarines and aircraft what if Putin is not in a position to order the launch Russia has got that scenario covered

Russian defense minister Sergey shogun and the chief of Russian military are said to have such nuclear briefcases too so they can order the launches if the Russian president is incapacitated

Russia’s nuclear war will inevitably be against the US so how big is the US’s Arsenal it’s the second biggest in the world the US has around 1 664 strategic nuclear warheads Russia and the us together controlled 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads that’s enough to destroy the world many times over enough to eradicate life on Earth and change the planet forever

Russia’s suspending participation in the new start treaty is significant even though Russia says it will continue to abide by the restrictions the decision has got the westward here’s what US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said, “The announcement by Russia that is suspending participation in the short is deeply unfortunate and irresponsible. We’ll be watching carefully to see what Russia actually does. We’ll of course make sure that in any of that we are postured appropriately for the security of our own country and that of our allies.”

NATO Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg said the whole Arms Control architecture has been dismantled I regret today’s decision by Russia to suspend its participation in the new start treaty over the last years Russia has violated and walked away from Key Arms Control agreements with today’s decision on new start the whole Arms Control architecture has been dismantled the world is an Uncharted Territory.

Vladimir Putin now considers the war in Ukraine a fight for Russia’s survival his fight transcends Ukraine’s borders

For all practical purposes Russia is fighting the NATO in Ukraine.

Episode 20: Vantage with Palki Sharma | China’s Xi Enters Ukraine Battleground?