Recently, Vladimir Putin’s propagandists spread the idea of a “small” atomic bomb in a sparsely populated area of the Transcarpathia region, which borders and shares a common border with Romania as well, so that not to produce “many casualties”, so as not to lead to an escalation of the conflict or provoke a harsh reaction from China.
“Unfortunately, it is true that the West and the US have a deal with India and China. that if we were to use tactical nuclear weapons that would cause many casualties, then those countries – India and China – would turn their backs on us”, said the guest of a show broadcast on the TV station “Zvezda” (“The Star”) of the Russian army.
“However, there is a territory (in Ukraine) that is almost devoid of population. I am referring to Transcarpathia, which connects Poland to western Ukraine. There are nine land routes, roads, bridges, tunnels and so on, in an area where almost no one lives anymore. And we are not talking here about the explosion of a 20-kiloton bomb, as was the case in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but of a 1.2- or 3-kiloton bomb. Such a bomb can seriously destroy things that conventional weapons cannot destroy”.
The excerpt from the TV show was posted on Twitter by the adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of the Interior, Anton Gheraschenko on May 2. The show itself was broadcast in Russia on April 26.
Transcarpathia is a region in southwestern Ukraine that includes the Ukrainian part of the Carpathian mountain range and borders Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland.
Former Russian president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, has warned that Ukraine’s attempts to retake Crimea could lead to the use of nuclear weapons by Russia. Medvedev specified that Russia’s nuclear deterrence doctrine provides for the possibility of resorting to nuclear weapons if the existence of the Russian state itself is threatened. However, the attempt to tear away a part of the Russian state is an attack on its existence, explained Medvedev, referring to the Crimea illegally annexed by Russia.