Vladimir Putin’s apparent willingness to use nuclear weapons has highlighted the risk such explosive pose to human life on Earth, with millions potentially dying in such an exchange
A terrifying map has shown what parts of the UK would be devastated in a Russian nuclear attack amid claims Vladimir Putin came close to using the weapons against Ukraine.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss claimed the Russia despot came close to unleashing nuclear weapons on neighbouring Ukraine. The ex-Tory leader spent some of the last days of her dying premiership going over weather maps to see if any radiation fallout could sweep over the UK.
Ms Truss said both UK and US intelligence highlighted the threat of a possible imminent strike in October 2022, an updated version of her unauthorised biography Out of the Blue. The new version of the book said Truss spent “numerous hours studying satellite weather data and wind directions.”
Putin’s apparent willingness to consider using nuclear weapons further highlights threats he has made to Western nations should they continue to support Ukraine. While Putin has threatened the UK and other countries, he has failed to follow through with any attacks other than on Ukraine.
The alarming revelation highlights the continued threat of a nuclear exchange that has existed since the end of the Cold War. In January, scientists warned the hands of the Doomsday Clock, a symbol that takes into account global affairs to show the risk of nuclear war, was 90 minutes to midnight.
Should the Doomsday Clock ever reach 12am, then a nuclear exchange would be inevitable and pose a risk to life on Earth. Terrifying data previously shared my Nukemap and its sister site Missile map, showed how such a scenario could play out in the UK.
It showed how a single one of Putin’s Topol (SS-25) weapons could kill nearly one million people and injure an estimated 2.2 million more if it were to be dropped on London. Other cities such as Birmingham and Nottingham would also be impacted.
The map tool created by historian Alex Wellerstein, based at Stevens Institute of Technology, showed the blast range of the 900kt bomb would affect the entirety of London with its effects being felt from Enfield and Croydon.
Should the Tsar Bomba, the biggest nuclear weapon to ever be created, be deployed above Birmingham it would destroy an area 6km across. 2.4 million people are estimated to die in such an explosion with the blast leaving people in Leicester, Nottingham and Stoke-on-Trent with third-degree burns.
Should the bomb be detonated above London, it could kill 5.7 million and leave 3.4 million injured. The smaller 50 mega-tonne Tsar Bomb be used it would have a blast radius so large that tens of thousands of people in Liverpool and Leeds would be badly burned.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are so far the only war-time targets to face the full force of atomic bombs. The bombs Little Boy and Fat Man are many times smaller than nuclear weapons available today and still resulted in the deaths of between 150,000 and 246,000 people following detonation.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has stated the impact of nuclear weapons would be felt long after the initial blast. The charity warned: “Nuclear weapons produce ionizing radiation, which kills or sickens those exposed, contaminates the environment, and has long-term health consequences, including cancer and genetic damage,” the charity warns.
“Less than one percent of the nuclear weapons in the world could disrupt the global climate and threaten as many as two billion people with starvation in a nuclear famine. “The thousands of nuclear weapons possessed by the US and Russia could bring about a nuclear winter, destroying the essential ecosystems on which all life depends.”
