De-escalate Russia’s nuclear threats with no-first-use declarations

Posted: 29th March 2022

“Russia’s threats to potentially use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict should be de-escalated, and nuclear war prevented, through no-first-use declarations by the USA and NATO, plus pressure on Russia to also adopt such a policy and step back from the brink of nuclear war” according to a statement released yesterday (March 28, 2022) by the NoFirstUse Global steering committee.

Since invading Ukraine on February 24, President Putin has put Russian nuclear forces on high alert and issued warnings to other nations that if they interfere with the Russian invasion they risk “consequences such as they have never seen in their history.”

The nuclear threat has been further elevated by statements made last week by Russian leaders Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chair of Russia’s Security Council, and Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, that Russia has a ‘right’ to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict in response to conventional weapon threats or an ‘existential threat’ to Russia.President Putin has put Russian nuclear forces on high alert and made thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict.

Fog of war increases risks of nuclear war

“What makes Russia’s threat especially dangerous,” according the the NoFirstUse Global statement “is that it has been made in the context of ongoing warfare. Even if this threat were meant solely to intimidate, the fog of war sharply increases the chances of a nuclear war through inadvertent escalation, miscalculation or accident.“

“The current humanitarian impact of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine is horrific and must be stopped – but it pales in comparison to the catastrophic impact a nuclear war would have on Europe and the entire world.”

No-first-use to prevent nuclear war

On January 3, the five nuclear weapon States parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (China, France, Russia, the UK and the United States) affirmed that ‘a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought’.

“Russia, the United States and the other nuclear weapon states should follow-up this very important statement by committing to never launch a nuclear war, i.e. to never use nuclear weapons first in any conflict” recommends the NoFirstUse Global statement.

A call for no-first-use declations is made in Fulfil the NPT: From nuclear threats to human security, an Open Letter to the States Parties to the NPT, and in the Appeal to Putin and other leaders: Do NOT use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict which has been launched by Tadatoshi Akiba, former Mayor of Hiroshima.

We encourage you to endorse the Open Letter and the Appeal, if you have not already done so, and to promote them to your networks.