"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (2 Viewers)

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It won't be a tactical nuke, but I wouldn't rule out a chemical weapon attack. Of course the prevailing wind would send any large strike straight into the Donbas region. A smaller chemical attack, like we saw in Iraq or Syria can't really be considered a WMD attack.

Hopefully he doesn't, because that is a thin red line I think that will force NATOs hand. Very dangerous indeed…
 
What would the reaction of the US and NATO be in this case? There's still no Article 5 to fall back on. My guess is some NATO members would want to march into Ukraine right up to the pre-Feb 2022 borders, whilst others will want to do nothing.

Probably. As I said weeks ago, I think any WMD use would trigger a push to impose an NFZ, which would obviously drag participating countries in.
 
I think that has already happened to a large degree as Ukrainians have seen that the Russians are intent on total destruction - even in areas they want to keep for themselves. You must also remember many pro-Russian citizens turned anti very quickly.

There was one Mayor? Governor? who was very vocally pro Putin until the Russians crossed the border and he instantly turned Anti-Putin in a big way - so much so that the President Z gave him a senior role in defense of Ukraine.

I find it ironic that the people trying to kill Z use that letter to mark their equipment so that the Ukrainians car target them
 
The young ones, like every other young adult in the world with a smart phone or web access and a VPN know the truth. That's going to be Putin's problem, he can't as easily control the minds of his subjects.
But he has been brainwashing them for years so that they believe he is the only one telling the truth - just like the Chinese and Pump
 
re Russian use of WMD in Ukraine and possible US/NATO reacton

The US/NATO and other allied/friendly countries have contingency plans, kind of like the old US Rainbow plans, that involve what to do in event of WMD use at various levels. And just like the Rainbow plans they are continuously reviewed and occasionally updated when things change significantly (significant changes include things like alliances, disintegration of governments in nations of concern, advances in technology, etc).

The link below does not go into details as to what the current plans are, but it gives an indication of how seriously the US/NATO view the current situation:

"U.S. Makes Contingency Plans in Case Russia Uses Its Most Powerful Weapons"
 
What bothers me is the paragraph

Those contingencies are expected to be central to an extraordinary session here in Brussels on Thursday, when President Biden meets leaders of the 29 other NATO nations, who will be meeting for the first time — behind closed doors, their cellphones and aides banished — since Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine.

As Pres Biden said - Vlad must be given way to save face or he will do the unthinkable.

I fear that his version of the unthinkable includes a bunch of missiles on the NATO headquarters when all the leaders are in session.
 

President Biden on Monday signed legislation that will make it easier for the U.S. to send military equipment to Ukraine as the Eastern European country battles the ongoing Russian invasion.

Biden signed the bill in the Oval Office at a ceremony with Vice President Harris and members of Congress. The bill, formally known as the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022, passed Congress with bipartisan support last month.

Biden affirmed U.S. support for the Ukrainians "in their fight to defend their country and their democracy against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's brutal war."

"Every day Ukrainians pay with their lives," Biden said. "The cost of the fight is not cheap but caving to aggression is even more costly. That's why we're staying in this."

The bill was introduced by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and allows the U.S. to lend or lease military equipment to Ukraine and other allies in Eastern Europe while streamlining the process to make it easier to do so. The bill revives a World War II-era policy that helped defeat Nazi Germany.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cheered the bill's signing.

"Today's signing of the law on Lend-Lease is a historic step. I am convinced that we will win together again. And we will defend democracy in Ukraine. And in Europe. Like 77 years ago," Zelensky tweeted.



For once (and mods please forgive my slight mention) our politicians did the right goddamned thing.
 
To put some of the following info in perspective - the US (and some other friendly nations to remain un-named) have/had direct ELINT and HUMINT links to information flowing between the higher-ups in Russia, for an extended period of time.

A summary of some of the content of the NY Times article I linked up-thread:

Within the US/NATO overall planning structure there is an organization specifically tasked with determining the threat of - and developing contingency plans for responding to - the use of WMD by other nations. The one dealing with the Russian war against the Ukraine is currently called the 'Tiger Team'.

The current Team was activated (officially) on 28 February (note that this was only 4 days after the start of the invasion). They meet 3x a week, and besides trying to determine/estimate what is likely to happen in the war at pretty much all levels, they are tasked with putting together a rational systematic response in response to Russian use of WMD in the Ukraine.

The Team is also tasked with determining possible responses to the Russians using conventional weapons to interdict weapons shipments to Ukraine while the shipments are still in NATO territory. Responses to Russia extending the war into neighboring countries are also being determined.

So far the analysis and contingency plans of the Tiger Team have been kept secret.

An additional bit of info. Unless I am mistaken, the use of a nuclear weapon (of any size) is outlawed by every nation in the UN - unless the nation using it is under imminent threat of being destroyed. I suspect this is why Putin is tying his vague threat of nuclear weapons to a possible "existential threat" to Russia.
 
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re threat of nuclear weapons

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Interesting sentence here: There have been estimates made that 10 per cent of the country's tech workforce have relocated since the war began, which some have described as a "brain-drain".

I'm somewhat involved in the admission process in a tech master. We have recently noticed an increased number of Russian students registering for enrollment.
 

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