Jan. 26, Anthony Colangelo, Professor of Law at the SMU Dallas Dedman School of Law, for a piece outlining the consequences of using nuclear weapons should Russia decide to do so during aggression against Ukraine. Published in Foreign Policy News under the heading Could Russia legally use nuclear weapons in response to a U.S. intervention in Ukraine?: https://bit.ly/32KnQKu
There is an ominous new development in the potential Russian invasion of the Ukraine and the U.S. response. According to the New York Times, “nuclear weapons could be shifted to places — perhaps not far from the United States coastline — that would reduce warning times after a launch to as little as five minutes, potentially igniting a confrontation with echoes of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.”
This is in keeping with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desire to expand Russia’s sphere of influence to Eastern Europe and commitments that NATO will not enlarge. Some of Putin’s aides suggested last week that should he fail to achieve these objectives, he would pursue Russia’s security interests with results that would be felt in Europe and the United States, including the placement of nuclear weapons near the United States coast close enough to reach the capital.