This is the strategic city that Russia tries to occupy 1:39
(CNN Spanish) --
Since the start of Russia's war in Ukraine a year ago, high-ranking US government officials have discussed how and under what conditions Moscow could use tactical nuclear weapons against Kyiv.
According to the US assessment, which is not based on first-hand intelligence but on analysis, these weapons equipped with smaller nuclear warheads could be used in a limited battlefield attack.
The explosive power of weapons of this type is equivalent to between 10 and 100 kilotons of dynamite.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said in December 2022 that he would consider nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction "as a defense strategy, and only in retaliation for such an attack on his territory."
Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said for his part a few days ago in a virtual meeting organized by the Inter-American Press Association and attended by CNN that, despite the nuclear threat posed by Russia, he trusts that the great powers will respect the doctrine of nuclear deterrence established since the Cold War in order to prevent nuclear powers from attacking each other.
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For his part, Alexander Khodakovsky, one of his commanders in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, appeared on Russian state television the same month urging the use of nuclear weapons.
The separatist military argued that he did not believe that the Russian army had the ability to win the war without using them.
Experts consulted by CNN believe that the use of any type of nuclear weapon in the war in Ukraine would not only generate international outrage, but would put pressure on the United States and its NATO partners to retaliate.
According to the Arms Control Association, Russia's total nuclear arsenal is larger than that of the United States: Moscow possesses around 6,250 nuclear warheads to the United States' more than 5,000.
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