The president of United States, Joe Bidenmade it clear to the Russian government that in the midst of the war in Ukraine, will not hesitate to respond militarily if they touch one of the NATO countries.
From the White House, the US president warned the Kremlin that Washington will defend tooth and nail every inch of the territory of the nations that make up this alliance, something that has not been done with Ukraine, a country that has Kiev – its capital – regarding 25 kilometers from being taken by the Russians.
However, he stated that President Vladimir Putin will pay a “high price” if he dares to use chemical weapons or biological once morest the Ukrainian people, who are on high alert for the possible Russian plan to attack with this type of weaponry.
Biden’s message at his press conference was concise: his troops are awaiting the Russian attack, although his desire is to avoid any armed confrontation between that country and NATO because, if it happens, it will trigger a Third World war.
This, however, will not be formed by the advance of the Russians to Ukraine, which completes 18 days and seems not to stop for two reasons. The first is that Putin’s troops are a few kilometers from Kiev, and the other is that the European Union announced through its spokesman, Josep Borrell, that will not stop giving weapons the Ukrainians, which are already Russian targets.
These confrontations already leave the Ukrainian side, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, 1,300 dead soldiers; and on the Russian side –according to said president– 12,000 soldiers have lost their lives, a situation that he says does not make him happy, since there are families who are left without a loved one due to the war.
the nuclear arsenal
Ukraine faces a war once morest Russia, an actor with more robust troops and a more technical arsenal, it is also a power with nuclear weapons. The noise regarding the eventual use of that arsenal in combat has been a constant this week.
Nine countries with nuclear weapons have been identified in the world, according to the Stockholm International Institute for Peace Studies (Sipri). These are the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea.
Together they add up to 13,080 nuclear forces. That amount was reduced from 2020 – when there were 13,400 – but the behavior of the warheads in each of these was uneven.
Of the nuclei prepared for a nuclear shot, only 3,825 are deployed. The United States and Russia are the ones with the most arsenal with 1,800 and 1,625, respectively, while China has 280 and France with 120.
This is why Ukraine faces a war once morest a nuclear powerwhich the Armed Forces of Volodimir Zelenski are –in theory– fighting alone, but with the economic and technological support of their allies.
Among those friends of Kiev are the Pentagon, the European Union and the United Kingdom, other actors that show themselves to be the most technical on the nuclear issue. On the other hand, China, an ally of Russia and a competitor of the United States, remains on the sidelines of the tensions and, for now, appeals to dialogue to end the fighting that has already have displaced 2.7 million people.
The proliferation of this nuclear weapon began in the framework of the Second World War, when Albert Einstein developed the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Since then, this arsenal has become more technical and the number of actors that develop it has also increased. Even one of the global concerns on this issue is the role that Iran might playwhich has enriched uranium above international standards, the basis for developing nuclear weapons.
With this panorama, three weeks of the war are regarding to be completed, and the four days of dialogue between Ukraine and Russia have failed, so everything indicates that Putin’s plans they did not contemplate such extensive combats.
Amid the noise of this international conflict, Russia stated that it had put its nuclear arsenal on alert, sowing fears of a destructive shot at Ukraine. However, a shot like this might unleash a Third World War in which the involvement of arsenal-wielding countries like the United States might result in mutually assured destruction.
However, nuclear is not the only chapter in this story. Although governments have not officially sent their soldiers, there are foreign military retirees preparing to fight in Europe.
alien soldiers
The Syrian Arab Army supports the Russian offensive in Ukraine, through the division 25, a unit made up of volunteers. However, from the Arab country, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights pointed out that so far no syrian soldiers have been sent to Ukrainian territory.
“They are in the process of registering the names of those who wish to participate in Russia’s war once morest Ukraine (…), although no mercenary has been sent so far,” the NGO said.
Although this Division is made up of volunteers, it is an elite group subscribed to the Syrian Army, which until 2019 operated as a separate force, loyal to President Bashar al Assad, known as the Tiger Forces.
This group of volunteers has been supported by the Russian Federation, the main ally of the Syrian government during the civil war in the latter country; It is also the only division that has expressed its intention to fight in ukraine.
Something different happens with Eighth Brigade, another contingent created by Russia during the reorganization of the Syrian army, which said it will not send troops for now. In this war, the soldiers Syrians they are not the only ones preparing to fight. And it is that although Western countries have not officially sent their soldiers to support Zelenski’s forces, some retired soldiers offered to travel to Kiev to face the battle.
On this, the Russian government said that if foreign soldiers are intercepted in the midst of fighting, these people will not be recognized as prisoners of war.
“All the mercenaries sent by the West to help the nationalist regime in Kiev are not combatants according to international humanitarian law. They are not entitled to prisoner status of war,” warned spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
However, the historian of the Bolivarian Pontifical, Cristián Cárdenas, explained that the term “mercenaries speaks of a paid soldier. What we are seeing is a mass migration of men from all over the world that they are traveling to fight for a cause and not for a payment, there is no hiring.”
After the deployment of foreigners and the sentence of Biden, Ukraine and Russia continue to line up troops in a war that has not been able to end through diplomatic channels, and that, in the face of any attack on NATO, might trigger a Third World War.
1.300
Ukrainian soldiers have lost their lives in the war, according to the official report.
