Is there really going to be a nuclear war/attack?

[Logburning]

I’m reading it everywhere, starting to feel terrified.

It’s not like covid or even WW1 or WW2, how can I protect my 3 year old? I can’t.

Even the BBC are talking about it as a possibility!

I just want to see my child grow up I feel so sad & scared.

I lived through the 70s/80s when the threat of nuclear war seemed constant and horribly likely. What was learned from those days was the sheer futility of using a nuclear strike since the subsequent destruction of the planet made the point to that sort of warfare entirely useless. Putin is, without doubt, unhinged. But he's not supported by the Russian people nor those closest to him. I'm certain he'll be taken out long before he can reach for the nuclear button.

On the up side, thank fuck we don't still have Trump in power. Only that would have been the sort of terrifying combination that might have sent us all to hell in a flaming handbasket.

Hi Everyone!

Sad to share on this topic but I think it's really awful. I saw that a 6 year old girl had died yesterday on the news this morning... Wish the world had better leadership... one man's decision changed the current and future of 100,000s of people in an instance...

xx

Hi op, I posted this earlier on another thread. Hope it helps.

I'm not sure if it helps or not, but I am a lot less anxious today having read an article yesterday which was really reassuring. Of course nobody can categorically say that hewon'tgo that far, but when you listen to all the experts, there's more standing in his way that you immediately think, and any number of ways this is more likely to play out than nuclear war. It was said yesterday that 'special alert' is not a level that is recognised as normal parlance in military/ intelligence circles. It is thought there are 4 levels of readiness, and this is simply rhetoric and posturing by Putin warning that he may move the level up a notch. Our intelligence services have seen no signs that Russia is physically moving weaponry around that suggests a standoff like the Cuban Missile Crisis. No satellite images suggesting movement. In short, we are nowhere near the le level of actual threat seen several decades ago.

Then, there are the people closest to Putin who will be becoming extremely skeptical of his actions. By all accounts, Russian propaganda is not as effective as the world feared. There is increasing awareness among with Russian population that this is an illegal war. The oligarchs have begun trying to persuade Putin against further escalation, now that their finances are being affected. People are seeing, more and more, that he's lost the plot and the world is against him. In Russian politics, things change very rarely but, when they do, very quickly. Windows of opportunity for change in Russia are small and there will be those both within and outside of Putin's administration who will see this as their window of opportunity - increasing numbers of protests across the country proving that information is getting through.

His list of enemies is growing. Someone, somewhere, will get to him long before he gets to press the button. And even before it got to that, our multiple intelligence services across the world would know if his actions were actually matching his rhetoric.

I woke up this morning feeling awful about everything I then gave myself a bloody good talking too and have made up 5 bags of baby stuff including a baby nest , clothes for men and women; toiletries, first aid kit , shoes , wooly pairs of socks and put packets of love hearts in all the bags and taken them to a collection centre in our village. All being driven to Poland this weekend I definitely feel more able to function now, by just doing something practical.

I'm not sure if people think that putin presses a button and then 6000 nukes get sent off to various places. It doesn't work like that. Each one takes time to prepare, and the nuke that the press have helpfully been showing pictures of how far it would explode if it hit London is the absolute biggest nuke there is, of which only 3 or 4 have been made and would be very, very unlikely to be sent off, I'm not even sure if that particular one has the capability of reaching the UK as it has to go by air and we have one of the best air forces in the world, plus russia is banned from just about every air space there is now so it would easily be intercepted.

@Whatafustercluck...brilliant post 💓

@VelvetChairGirl

I wonder why the media is scaremongering so much, they didnt do this over the annexing of chimea or chechnya.

still looking for the fix of doom and gloom now they haven't got the pandemic to focus on?

Because they don’t have COVID to scaremonger over any more.

It’s very unlikely. But anyone saying it could never happen has no more idea than anyone else. We’d already have air strikes if it wasn’t at the back of every leader’s mind.

No it’s ok OP.

Putin’s regime is a master of psychological manipulation. It’s fear tactics.

It’s thought bot farms spreading misinformation on social media is how they will try and undermine any country standing up to them.

It’s already started with obvious bots spreading misinformation about Ukraine (a video about Ukrainians torturing a Russian soldier has already been outed as fake) and reposting tweets about the U.K. invasion in Iraq and how it’s no different.

Trust me everyone who needs to know is already aware of this.

I understand why people are being positive ( and know more than I do ) but last week people were saying ' Putin won't attack Ukraine ' so I guess nobody can be complacent and the convoy will reach the capital soon as well ; what comes after that is also key to this too.
It is just horrible seeing them rolling into the capital.

I think people have visions of him with a remote control, finger hovering over a big red button like Dr Evil. I'm no expert by any means but I'm pretty sure it's not that easy for him to decide to set off a nuclear weapon.

@the80sweregreat

I understand why people are being positive ( and know more than I do ) but last week people were saying ' Putin won't attack Ukraine ' so I guess nobody can be complacent and the convoy will reach the capital soon as well ; what comes after that is also key to this too. It is just horrible seeing them rolling into the capital.

US and UK agencies have been saying for several weeks that Putin was going to invade. That's why the UK spent the last few weeks shipping items to Ukraine via military planes.

US intelligence services have also said that they see no signs of increased activity around Russia's nuclear sites. They seem to have a good understanding of what is going on over there.

I'm sorry you're feeling like this.

I spent a lot of anxious time like that in the 80s as a teenager, but not really knowing how to talk to anyone about it. If I heard a funny noise at night I'd lie awake for hours wondering if this was it, the bomb had been dropped.

Considerably older now, I'm not worrying about it. The likelihood of it happening is not huge, it's just that people love to dramatise and speculate.

I have no means of controlling what happens. I can let myself fall into a pit of fear or I can just keep on living my life as calmly as possible,

I hope you can calm your fears over this OP, try and focus on some simple things that make you happy every day.

And how do you envisage nuclear war? If he starts one, Russia is going down as well, so no point for him really.

As others have said, when Putin raised his nuclear threat level, UK and US intelligence have observed literally zero change in his operations.
It's possible in an "anything is possible" sort of way, and about as likely as next door's dog growing wings, flying to Moscow and taking Putin out himself. If Putin wanted to do it, it's hugely unlikely that those around him will stand back and watch - they won't want to die because he's, well, a madman.

@forcedfun

If he was that keen to lob nuclear weapons around he would have just chucked a couple at Ukraine. (I don't say that light heartedly, I have loved ones there)

He's threatening just enough to ensure the west respect some of his lines in the sand around involvement in Ukraine

I was thinking the same. He could have launched them at Ukraine five days ago if he wanted to.

@the80sweregreat most people who were well informed have been expecting Putin to attack Ukraine for sometime. My brother and his wife started trying to get her sister out a year ago. The British army has been helping train Ukrainian troops for several years

We never know.

Op I was very nervous about covid and generally take these things very seriously but I really, really don’t think there is a nuclear threat. Even if he is desperate to die (which I don’t think he is considering how scared he was of covid!) the others around him are not. He is very angry Ukraine isn’t going to plan.

He won’t touch any nato countries and if he did, oh my hell be taken down before he gets close to us.

@Hospedia

If its any comfort, there have been over 2000 nuclear weapons detonated on Earth and we're all still here.

Except all the people killed as a direct result or in the aftermath of said nuclear weapon 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ Honestly!!!! What a stupid thing to say.

We are very very very likely NOT going to perish in a nuclear blast this time round though. Most of us are going to have very boring pedestrian deaths like cancer or heart attacks.

When I say 'people' I do mean the 'person in the street ' types in the UK , not those who really knew this was a possibility and actually live there etc.

Fear is a weapon of mass destruction.

YABU. This is just absolutely ridiculous. Not singling you out but this whole MN hysteria about the situation and when it will ‘affect us’ is a joke.

Putin is a psychopathic murderer. Of course nobody with a bit of sense would ever threaten a nuclear attach but is he in his right mind?

Am I the only one who is feeling mightily pissed off with him? How dare he, one man, put all our futures in danger?

If it happens then that’s it, game over for all of us. That feels worse than just indivually dying, doesn’t it? The end of thousands of years of human civilisation and of course the loss of all of us including our nearest and dearest.

How DARE he, as Greta might say. Time this bastard was made to step down.

Except all the people killed as a direct result or in the aftermath of said nuclear weapon 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ Honestly!!!! What a stupid thing to say.

Its not really a stupid thing to say. Some people see a nuclear bomb as a world ending event, @Hospedia is just pointing out it isn't.