Nuclear weapons have only been used twice in the world: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "So it's no coincidence that they do NOT use these tools," university professor Erzsébet N. Rózsa told our portal.
There is no guarantee, but he does not think that the conflict in Ukraine could escalate into a nuclear war, nor does he consider it an conceivable scenario that Russia would use nuclear weapons, Erzsébet N. Rózsa, a teacher at the National University of Public Service (NKE), told Mandiner.hu.
The expert was sought after President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday last week that Russia would suspend its participation in the nuclear arms reduction agreement concluded with the USA, the so-called In the New START agreement.
(This was the last remaining nuclear arms limitation treaty with the United States, which was extended for five years in 2021.)
In addition, another Russian leader, Dmitry Medvedev (currently the deputy president of the Russian Security Council), has more than once referred to the deployment of nuclear weapons.
Erzsébet N. Rózsa said that the New START agreement is an agreement between the two superpowers, the United States and Russia, to limit the number of deployable nuclear weapons. Not about ending the arsenal, not liquidating it, not banning its use, but limiting it.
"Of course, this was a very important step at the time. As a result, I consider Putin's move to be a kind of political blackmail rather than a real source of danger, an attack intent," he stated.
Responding to the interest, he later referred to the related interviews of András Rácz, an expert on Russia, in which Rácz discussed that the Russian president would not be capable of starting a nuclear war on his own anyway.
"The general staff can launch a nuclear weapon on the president's orders by ordering the deployment of the given military unit. However, Russian nuclear forces are the elite of the elite. You can trust that they wouldn't shoot despite Putin's orders (...) And those around Putin wouldn't let them turn Russia into radioactive ash either," Rácz said in the Klasszis Klub, for example.
N. Rózsa then reminded that nuclear weapons were used only twice in the world: in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Deterrence is the greatest potential of nuclear weapons.
If there were to be a Russian attack, the chance of a counterattack is even smaller, that either the USA, France, or the United Kingdom would retaliate against the Russians for a nuclear attack in Ukraine," Erzsébet N. Rózsa told our newspaper.
Source: mandiner.hu
Featured image: AFP
