Toward a Nuclear Pulse in Europe?

The outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict revealed the worrying servility that Western countries show to American dictates. As a result, European institutions lost decision-making power and became completely subordinate to the geopolitical bidding of the U.S., leaving France irrelevant in the new geopolitical cartography of Cold War 2.0.

However, Emmanuel Macron’s thinking seems rigid and irreversible; he fails to account for differing views and gathers only data that confirm his prejudices, thus transforming them into convictions. And so, all indications are that Macron appears determined to lead Europe by making a personal commitment to provide unwavering support for Ukraine and forcing NATO into open conflict with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Thus, with the U.S. immersed in a presidential election campaign, France, Poland and the United Kingdom appear to be the trident chosen by globalists to break down the Ukrainian front next summer and provoke NATO into open conflict with Putin’s Russia, where Putin has been reelected until 2030.

Will NATO Enter the War in Ukraine?

The Ukrainian conflict could signal a return to the Cold War between Russia and the U.S. and a return to the doctrine of containment set out by George F. Kennan in “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” published in Foreign Affairs magazine in 1947 and summed up in the following words: “Soviet power is impervious to the logic of reason but very sensitive to the logic of force.”

Thus, Polish President Andrzej Duda affirmed that his country is “ready to accept nuclear weapons” from Allied countries on its territory, drawing a harsh and forceful rebuke from Moscow, which said, “The stationing of this type of armament in Poland will turn this country into a priority target in Russian military planning.”

Likewise, in a statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russia warned that the “arrival of F-16 fighters in Ukraine will be seen as nuclear weapons carriers and we will consider this step by the U.S. and NATO as a deliberate provocation.” Moreover, Russia accuses the West of openly supporting Ukraine’s sabotage on Russian territory and of supplying Kyiv with British and French long-range missiles, as well as the new U.S. MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System, which can reach Russian territory.

Within the action-reaction dynamic of the new Cold War 2.0 scenario, Putin ordered his country’s armed forces to conduct tactical nuclear weapons maneuvers on its southern border with Ukraine and warned that “the use of Western weapons by Ukraine against Russian territory could lead to very serious problems….[and] in response, Moscow could provide long-range weapons to third parties to attack Western targets.”

Ignoring such warnings, Macron told France 2 and TF1 channels that France “will cede Mirage 2000-5 fighters to Ukraine and will train pilots and a brigade of 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers whom it will equip, train and lend weapons.” He also reiterated that “Ukraine should be allowed to use weapons provided by its Western allies to attack Russian military targets and neutralize the points from which the country is under attack.”

The current priority for Paris, as advanced by Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu, is to supply Volodymyr Zelenskyy with high-tech precision-guided AASM bombs and advanced artillery pieces, as well as 40 units of France’s powerful SCALP cruise missile.

Macron and the Nuclear Saber

Macron, who has set himself as the champion defending Western values against Russian barbarism, seems to be the only European leader willing to rattle the nuclear saber in the face of Putin’s threats to “use nuclear force in the event that the integrity of Russia is endangered.” Although the French president and prime minister share the responsibility for the armed forces pursuant to the French Constitution of 1958, a 1962 decree gives the president sole authorize to launch nuclear weapons.

Let us recall that the “Force de frappe,” the force of deterrence, was born in 1960 as a consequence of a proclamation by the Fifth French Republic under Gen. Charles De Gaulle and was conceived as one of the key elements of the country’s economic, diplomatic and military independence vis-à-vis the two great world powers: the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Under former President Nicolas Sarkozy, the French atomic arsenal was reduced to its current level of 290 nuclear warheads, part of which includes nuclear ballistic submarines. The M51 SLBM is its longest-range missile with a range of 9 kilometers (approximately 5.6 miles); there are also land and sea bombers with medium-range and high-speed nuclear cruise missiles, the Air-Sol Moyenne Portée. In this context, French Defenses Minister Lecornu confirmed “a first successful test firing of a new short- to medium- range supersonic nuclear air-to-surface missile,” known as the ASMP, from a Rafale aircraft of the Strategic Air Forces over French territory. It has a range of 500 kilometers (approximately 300 miles) and can carry nuclear payloads of 300 kilotons (approximately 0.3 megatons).

Toward a Low-Intensity Nuclear War?

Since both Macron and Putin are afflicted with the so-called Pontius syndrome, in which there is a distorted sense of danger due to an excess of adrenaline in the person affected, neither will be deterred by the opposite so, the conflict could culminate in a low-intensity nuclear war using tactical nuclear weapons.

“Non-strategic” nuclear weapons, also known as “tactical nuclear weapons,” according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative — Russia would have about 1,800 warheads and NATO would have 250 warheads deployed in Europe — are warheads designed for use on a limited battlefield; for example, to destroy a column of tanks or a carrier battle group if used at sea. They are also known as low-yield nuclear weapons.

However, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Princeton University simulation of a U.S.-Russia conflict beginning with the use of a tactical nuclear weapon predicts rapid escalation that would leave more than 90 million dead and injured, in which the onset of a low-intensity nuclear conflict could degenerate into a full-scale nuclear conflagration with dire results for humanity.