alt Hacker News> If France stops being a deterrent Russia would be able to nuke Brussels - and perhaps a few other capitals to make the point - and likely force immediate surrender.
Ukraine isn’t under anyone’s nuclear umbrella, but Russia hasn’t done more than threaten to use nuclear weapons in that war. Probably because it’s not at all clear that it would actually force a surrender.
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baybal2 • today at 11:08 AM
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Russia likely also still remember the aftermath of Chernobyl; a nuclear strike so close to their home would hopefully be seen as something to avoid at all costs. On a similar note, Ukraine also still has a few bandages it could take off in the event of a nuclear strike, like an all-out strike on Russian nuclear power plants. Those are undoubtedly well-defended, but there are a lot of them and they only need to succeed in causing fallback to leak from one.