Putin’s nuclear saber rattling

As the Russia-Ukraine War continues, with Ukraine on the precipice of retaking territory that Russia captured three years ago, the dictator of the invasive force is now threatening to use nuclear weapons to stall Zelenskyy’s momentum that appears to be unstoppable. To make the most of their tactical use, Putin’s somewhat knowledgeable but nearsighted advisers will claim it should be an air burst, to spread devastation as far and as wide as possible.

All nuclear devices have a residual, lethal dose of “dirty” radioactivity when an air burst occurs. My recent “weatherscope” revealed that prevailing winds from Kyiv and all points eastward flow into Russia. Everyone in its path will die, some soon, others later…

If a Putin dissident, a well-respected nuclear physicist, had the courage to challenge him on the use of atomic weapons, illustrating, with clear evidence the potential of not only Ukrainians but Russians who will suffer from the fallout, how long would the physician remain alive, or, if possible, Putin to be overthrown?

I spent four years in the Special Weapons Project in the USAF, atomic and hydrogen weapons, four years at Argonne National Laboratory, in its “Atoms for Peace Program”, and three years at Whiting Corporation, design of equipment to refuel reactors in nuclear submarines, and somewhere along the way I picked up something about the use of nuclear devices.

If Zelenskyy understands these basic aftereffects of Putin’s intentions, which won’t come off if he listens to reason from his closest comrades, he should come to only one conclusion, it’s nothing more than “saber rattling coming from the Kremlin”.

James D. Cook

Schaumburg