Nuclear weapons. Image: larazon.es

By Guillermo Alvarado

The feared words “nuclear weapons” have been uttered in the context of the war currently being waged in northern Europe, where the meddling and total absence of common sense of several Western powers could drown the world in a devastating atomic mushroom cloud.

Recently, the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, ordered the army to shortly carry out maneuvers with tactical atomic arsenals, due to "provocative statements and threats by certain officials" of countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO.

The term Tactical Nuclear Weapons, ANT, is still under discussion and the border that separates them from strategic weapons is blurred because, after all, although they have less destructive power, they emit radiation in quantities incompatible with life, that is, they kill. .

Currently the country with the most devices of this nature in the world is the United States, followed by Russia, Pakistan and Israel, which is, by the way, the only country that has never signed any international treaty to control, supervise or regulate its arsenals and with the Washington's support does not allow any oversight of its facilities.

ANTs are also called battlefield bombs, because they destroy small and medium-sized targets and the devices for launching them are very variable, from artillery, aviation, submarines or short-range missiles.

Putin ordered the exercises to be carried out after the British Foreign Minister, David Cameron, declared that Ukraine has every right to attack Russian territory with the weapons that NATO has given it.

Shortly afterwards, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, repeated the unfortunate idea of ​​sending European Union troops to fight in support of kyiv, which is equivalent to a declaration of war against Moscow.

According to the Russian president, the announcement of military exercises with ANT could cool some heated heads in the West.

However, we cannot ignore the fact that its eventual use in combat would open the door to a greater level of danger, for the simple reason that no one can anticipate what the response of the adversary will be, in this case NATO, which always He was characterized by having “easy trigger.”

It is good, in these circumstances, to remember Albert Einstein's warning that if humanity goes to a third world war, the fourth, if there are any survivors, will be fought with stones and sticks.