NATO admiral talks about the weapon that prevented Russia from sending ground troops to Ukraine

Admiral Rob Bauer recently said that NATO troops would be in Ukraine to fight Russian forces if Moscow did not have nuclear weapons.

"I am absolutely certain that if Russia did not have nuclear weapons, we would be in Ukraine and kick them out," Admiral Rob Bauer, the outgoing head of NATO's Military Committee, stressed at the IISS Prague Defense Summit in the Czech Republic on November 10, according to Newsweek .

The Yars intercontinental ballistic missile is launched during a test from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Russia's Northern Arkhangelsk region, in this image from a video released on October 29.

Russia has the world's largest nuclear arsenal, while the United States is second. Together, Moscow and Washington control about 90% of the world's nuclear weapons.

In NATO, the US, UK and France have nuclear weapons, but some other bases in Europe also have US tactical nuclear weapons.

The scenario of NATO troops fighting for Ukraine has largely been dropped from the table, although foreigners have joined Ukrainian forces as volunteers.

In February, French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine. However, this possibility was quickly dismissed by other NATO countries. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the time stressed that they were not considering sending troops to the battlefield. US President Joe Biden has also repeatedly stated that no US troops will be deployed to Ukraine.

NATO has stated that it supports Ukraine, but is not directly involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Several NATO countries sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq for years in the early 2000s, but were reluctant to discuss deploying their own ground troops to Ukraine. Kyiv has said it is not asking its backers for troops, but only for military aid.

According to Admiral Bauer, fighting in Afghanistan is not like fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine because the Taliban does not have nuclear weapons. "There is a big difference between Afghanistan and Ukraine," Mr. Bauer emphasized.

When he launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin put his country's nuclear deterrent on high alert. A few months later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the risk of nuclear conflict had become "significant."

More than a month ago, President Putin announced on September 25 that Russia needed to update its nuclear doctrine to identify issues that could lead Moscow to launch a nuclear attack, according to RT.

Mr Putin then stressed that Moscow would also "promptly" respond nuclear-wise if it received "reliable information" about a missile attack by another country on Russia or its closest ally, Belarus.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/do-doc-nato-noi-ve-loai-vu-khi-khien-nga-ngan-nato-dua-bo-binh-den-ukraine-185241111114206581.htm