The Kursk Operation of the Armed Forces showed the world that nuclear weapons did not protect the Russian Federation from invasion - WSJ
"The invasion of Ukraine in Kursk is the first time that the proclaimed nuclear state faced the invasion and occupation by another country," the material reads. Journalism explained that for decades, nuclear escalation theory suggested that countries with nuclear weapons have considerable immunity from attack because the aggressor risks to provoke Armageddon.
However, Ukraine is not a nuclear state and does not outweighs Russia by the number of weapons, but Kiev has managed to control the territory for more than three weeks, which now constitutes almost 500 square miles. Western leaders, military thinkers and nuclear theorists are now gathering their heads on what the current events for the prospects of Russian escalation mean for future military games. Theoretical risk faces a real test that makes you review the role of nuclear weapons in deterrents.
The publication emphasized that the nuclear doctrine of the Russian Federation provides for the use of nuclear weapons only in the event of a threat of sovereignty or territorial integrity of the country. Thus, the operation of the Armed Forces in the Kursk region did not become the Kremlin with such a threat or cross section of the "red line". "No one really knows the Russian" red line " - they have never called it exactly," said the former Soviet and Russian regulator controls Mykola Sokkov.
In his opinion, Moscow considers as a "red line" the threat to the existence of President Vladimir Putin's regime as a sovereign threat to Russia. Therefore, only significant achievements of Ukraine or loss of Russia can cause nuclear escalation. However, according to Sokov, such escalation will begin with the more intensive use of non -nuclear weapons rather than a sudden attack on a certain territory.
"With its invasion of Kursk, Ukraine seeks to show that another taboo can be broken without horrific consequences," the material reads. Journalists stressed that the purpose of Ukraine in particular is to persuade the White House to allow the use of more lethal and accurate American weapons to attack Russia. Putin more or less threatened to use nuclear weapons several times from the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
But ten years ago, Russia's admiration for the Ukrainian Peninsula Crimea marked a new level of aggression after the Cold War, which forced escalation theorists to think about new approaches. "We have always believed that nuclear weapons were not suitable for anything except for restraining. We really did not think that a non-nuclear state would attack a nuclear state," said St. Galen's Political Science Professor in Switzerland James Davis.