26 November 2024

Thunderbolt from the Skies: Putin's Doomsday Weapon Puts NATO on Final Notice

Simplicius

The escalations continue accelerating as we inch closer to nuclear war. Russia has now confirmed to have unprecedentedly used a new IRBM weapons system named ‘Oreshnik’ to strike Ukraine’s Yuzhmash enterprise facility in Dnipro:

Though I shudder at having to write such a seemingly clickbaity lead line, and while I myself do not actually expect it to come to any sort of WWIII scenario any time soon, one cannot but accurately describe the situation as having brought the doomsday clock a few seconds closer to midnight.

The main reason for this is that, essentially, Ukraine is getting exactly what it wants, underscored by Zelensky immediately launching into an online tirade calling for allies “to do something” against Russia for this escalation. Remember: Zelensky actually unironically wants Russia to outright nuke Ukraine. It would be a very tiny price to pay for salvation. A single nuke would do no appreciable damage at all, but would obviously change the global calculus against Russia. Thus, the developments could only be regarded as quite promising for Yermak and his small factotum.

Of course, they come with great risk for Ukraine as well. It all depends on the allies’ stomach for escalation. Russia’s actions could yield a measure of deterrence and strategic paralysis.

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