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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <a
class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/14/west-plans-avoid-panic-if-russia-nuclear-bomb-ukraine-putin">theguardian.com</a>
<h1 class="reader-title">West makes plans to avoid panic if
Russia uses nuclear bomb in Ukraine</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Dan Sabbagh</div>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">4-5 minutes</div>
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<p>Western officials are engaged in “prudent planning”
behind the scenes to prevent chaos and panic in their
home countries in the event Russia was to detonate a
nuclear bomb in or near <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ukraine"
data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="in
body link">Ukraine</a>.</p>
<p>Although a nuclear crisis is considered highly
unlikely, the insider said officials internationally
were re-examining plans to provide emergency support and
reassurance to populations fearful of nuclear
escalation.</p>
<p>Hints of the thinking emerged in a briefing by an
official on Friday, who was asked if there would be
measures in place to prevent panic buying or people
fleeing cities en masse in fear of escalation after a
nuclear event.</p>
<p>Governments were engaged in “prudent planning for a
range of possible scenarios” said the western official,
who was speaking on condition of anonymity, although
they stressed that any use of nuclear weapons by <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/russia"
data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="in
body link">Russia</a> in the war would be abhorrent.</p>
<figure id="dba05bb4-a5e9-420a-93e5-7cef0853d23c"
data-spacefinder-role="richLink"
data-spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement"></figure>
<p>Public information campaigns and even school drills on
how to survive a nuclear war were a feature of the cold
war, including the <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/12/forgetting-the-apocalypse-why-our-nuclear-fears-faded-and-why-thats-dangerous"
data-link-name="in body link">duck and cover campaign</a>
in the US in the 1950s, <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/30/uk-was-primed-for-nuclear-war-in-the-uk-taras-young-interview"
data-link-name="in body link">Protect and Survive</a>
from the UK in the late 1970s and <a
href="https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/TV2QKE7VFFDQKV2WYOMZCU6B6OTRCQM6"
data-link-name="in body link">“Everyone has a chance”</a>
in West Germany in the early 1960s.</p>
<p>These campaigns were the subject of considerable
criticism and parody for their suggestion that it could
be possible to survive an all-out nuclear conflict,
although in this case the focus is supposed to be on
preventing public panic over fear of an uncontrolled
nuclear escalation that would lead to major cities being
targeted.</p>
<p>Kate Hudson, the general secretary of the <a
href="https://cnduk.org/" data-link-name="in body
link">Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament</a>, said:
“This ‘prudent planning’ harks back to the British
government’s cold war-era Protect and Survive campaign –
which was roundly condemned by CND as giving the false
impression that a nuclear attack could be survived by
whitewashing windows and other irrelevances.”</p>
<p>As Moscow has suffered reverses on the battlefield in
Ukraine since September, Vladimir Putin has ratcheted up
the nuclear rhetoric, saying last month that he would
use “all available means” to defend Russian territory.</p>
<p>The western official said the Russian president’s
comments about nuclear use were “deeply irresponsible”
and no other country was talking about nuclear weapons.
“We do not see this as a nuclear crisis,” they said.</p>
<p>Echoing comments made by the US, the official said:
“Any use of nuclear weapons would break a taboo that has
held since 1945” which would “lead to severe
consequences for Russia, as well as for everybody else”.</p>
<p>Towards the end of last month, Jake Sullivan, the US
national security adviser, said there would be
“catastrophic consequences” for Moscow if it sought to
deploy a tactical nuclear weapon, which can have the
power of six or seven Hiroshima blasts.</p>
<p>The west does not want to spell out how it might
respond, to preserve a deliberate ambiguity – and on
Friday the official would not be drawn on what nuclear
armed countries might do. But the expectation is that to
avoid rapid escalation any initial response would be
non-nuclear.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Emmanuel Macron broke ranks and said he
would not order a like-for-like retaliation if there was
a Russian nuclear strike in Ukraine. The French
president said the country’s fundamental interests
“wouldn’t be directly affected at all if, for example,
there was a ballistic nuclear attack in Ukraine, in the
region”.</p>
<p>Earlier this week, Jeremy Fleming, the head of the GCHQ
spy agency, said he not seen any sign that Russia was
preparing to use a tactical nuclear weapon in or around
Ukraine. It is his agency’s job to help monitor Russian
military movements, and whether its military was trying
to pair a nuclear warhead with a conventional missile.</p>
<p>Experts generally believe that Putin is engaged in a
bluff, trying to provoke fear and uncertainty in the
west, to ensure that the US or Nato does not enter the
war on Ukraine’s side.</p>
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