The US Senate has introduced a resolution which proposes that the actions of Russia, Belarus "or proxy of Russia" be considered as an attack on NATO, if their actions lead to radioactive contamination of the allies' territory.
It is not just from tactical nukes in Belarus, they have also rigged a nuclear power plant with explosives like they did the massive hydroelectric dam....
By deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russia is lowering the nuclear threshold, politicians and commentators have said.
Oh wow. Yeah that's not a good idea on Russia's part. It's a historical "fuck you" from the Cold War era. . I am wondering what NATO and the US would consider an appropriate response. Russia has stated many times they will use nuclear weapons to defend against an invasion. So it really feels like WW3 on the horizon.
I guess the US could totally blockade Russia and all its allies ports. That would be a huge escalation.
I distinctly remember some senator raising the point shortly after the start of the invasion in regards to potential Russian nuclear weapons use in Ukraine, that if it irradiated NATO members that it should be considered an attack on NATO.
This was well prior to Blinken giving the ultimatum to Russia regarding Russia using nuclear weapons use in Ukraine.
EDIT2: That being said, this is a non-binding resolution. If this is to become official policy of the US, I think I'd have the executive issue a statement saying so, akin to Kennedy's statement during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and pair that with Senate and House resolutions indicating that they agree with the policy:
At 7:00 pm EDT on October 22, Kennedy delivered a nationwide televised address on all of the major networks announcing the discovery of the missiles. He noted:
It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.
Kennedy described the administration's plan:
To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba, from whatever nation or port, will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back. This quarantine will be extended, if needed, to other types of cargo and carriers. We are not at this time, however, denying the necessities of life as the Soviets attempted to do in their Berlin blockade of 1948.
No, we are not eager to join the war but russia keeps pushing the boundaries by doing worse and worse war crimes that are affecting more and more people
Probably would like to deter the irradiation of countries in Europe in advance. Easier to deter than to clean up after the Kremlin decides to trigger this.
If anything, I see this as an effort to avoid joining the war. Notification to Russia of what we and nato consider to be an attack. The nato alliance is worthless if they/we do not follow through with action when a member state is attacked.
Since when is causing thousands of casualties across Poland and several other countries not considered an act of war? if NATO sprayed orange all over Moscow with planes would you consider it one?
The article reads as if the USA is pushing the message. There doesn’t seem to be internal debate within the NATO, with the concern coming from Poland. The USA behaves as if they speak for all NATO states.
It’s totally understandable and appropriate when Europe states raise these things. But the intensity about this coming from the USA raises my question what’s their game.
They are eager for Russia to not cause a massive cloud of radioisotopes to drift over NATO countries.
There's a very easy way for Russia to keep NATO out of the war, they can just not do that.
Even easier, they could entirely stop their troops from getting killed if they'd just pull them out of Ukraine. Nobody wants to invade Russia. Not even Russians really want to invade Russia, it turns out.
You're right, we should do nothing in our power to prevent Russia from causing a catastrophic nuclear disaster affecting millions of people. Maybe we should just let them know we'll be like real upset and stuff if they do it. I bet that'll help.
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