Russia’s Vladimir Putin has amassed an enormous number of troops on the border with Ukraine and has publicly threatened NATO if it does not back down.
His statements worried many in the UK, that if threatened, Putin could unleash a war unlike anything we have seen in the nuclear era.
Putin has deployed over 100,000 of his army’s two million personnel close to Ukraine, but international security experts claim there could be a far worse outcome than small skirmishes on the border if Ukraine joins NATO.
Following a six hour meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week, Putin said:
“Do you understand it or not, that if Ukraine joins NATO and attempts to bring Crimea back by military means, the European countries will be automatically pulled into a war conflict with Russia?”
“Of course, Russia and NATO potentials are incomparable…but we also understand that Russia is one of the leading nuclear states.”
“There will be no winners, and you will be pulled into this conflict against your will.”
“You won’t even have time to blink your eye…”
Does the UK have nuclear weapons?
The UK has nuclear weapons and has done since 1952 when they were first tested.
It is estimated the UK has around 225 nuclear war heads and have maintained a continuous deployment of ‘nukes’ at sea since 1969.
For context, Russia has around 6,257 nuclear weapons which can be launched from land, air or sea.
Britain is committed to the ‘ nuclear deterrent ‘, claiming it is vital to global peace, national security and the NATO alliance.
Where are the UK’s nuclear weapons?
Most nuclear warheads which are not on operations with submarines are stored at the Royal Naval Armament Depot (RNAD) at Coulport in the Clyde Area of Scotland.
The facility consists of sixteen nuclear weapon storage bunkers, built into a ridge.
Trident missile warheads and conventional torpedoes are stored at the weapons depotwhere they are installed and removed from submarines from the nearby Faslane Naval Base.
Each Trident missile is estimated to be eight times as destructive as the Hiroshima bomb which killed over 140,000 civilians in 1945.
The site is just 35 miles from Glasgow.
A survey by YouGov found that the majority of Scots do not want nuclear weapons in their nation and it is opposed by the Scottish Parliament’s ruling party, the SNP.
