Stanislav Krapivnik explains how Europe’s willingness to host nuclear weapons is bringing the prospect of Russian nuclear strikes on European soil dangerously close.

Lithuania has become the latest, though certainly not the last, country on the list whose parliament has voted to lift restrictions on the stationing of nuclear weapons. In other words, yet another European state with a death wish has decided to remove the legal barriers to deploying nuclear warheads on its territory. The weapons in question are expected to be primarily American, although French nuclear weapons could also potentially be used. Britain’s nuclear arsenal—which, strictly speaking, is not entirely British but heavily dependent on American systems—is not being considered, since it is based exclusively on submarines, many of which are currently undergoing maintenance amid funding shortages. Quite simply, the money is not there.

What is being discussed is American nuclear weaponry in the form of the B61-12 guided nuclear gravity bomb. These weapons can be carried not only by strategic bombers but also by tactical aircraft such as the F-16 and F-35.

There is, however, one small detail that has not been properly taken into account. Since modern F-16 and F-35 fighters are capable of carrying a 50-kiloton nuclear bomb, in the event of any armed conflict between the United States and Russia, the Russian side would be compelled to destroy all relevant storage facilities and air bases.

Assuming that these bunkers are dispersed throughout the European Union and are heavily fortified, neutralizing them would require the use of medium-yield nuclear weapons, for example in the range of 50 to 100 kilotons—roughly equivalent, at the upper end, to five bombs of the type dropped on Hiroshima.

Given the population density of the European Union, a series of such strikes would result in catastrophe and could potentially lead to the deaths of a substantial part of the population. What is striking, however, is that the population of the EU as a whole appears so shortsighted that it fails to grasp the scale of the consequences. Europeans are actively supporting the creation of conditions under which their own territory could effectively serve as a “human shield” for American nuclear weapons.

What can one say?

As the American saying goes: “Stupidity should hurt.”

(Translated from the Russian)

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Europeans to the Nuclear Front!