General ‘Armageddon’ wanted to justify the nickname: ‘We will attack Ukraine with all the forces’
In order to prevent the penetration of Ukraine to the Crimea peninsula 2022, the Russian general Sergei Surovikinbetter known as General Armageddon. He was on the verge of ordering the use of tactical nuclear weapons, states New York Times. As they write in their report, calling for military sources, the Russian president himself Vladimir Putin He ordered the setting of nuclear forces to discourage in war readiness. This was confirmed by the Russian Foreign Minister himself in 2022. Sergei Lavrov who said the use of such weapons was considered.
Namely, unlike strategic weapons, tactical nuclear weapons are designed for use on the battlefield, in a limited area. It has less power and are designed to use against different goals. Americans estimate that the Russians have 2000 active warheads, and US intelligence agencies estimated at the time that the chances of Moscow use their nuclear weapons in Ukraine between five and ten percentstates in a Times report.
If Ukraine had successfully progressed with its offensive in the south, which would threaten the position of the Russians on that peninsula, the chance of use would grow on 50 percent.
But Surovikin did not last long in his position. He was replaced by the Chief of General Staff at the site of the Supreme Russian Commander in Ukraine in January 2023. Valerij Gerasimov. After Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group, led by former Putin ally, Jevgenija Prigozin, rebelled against Kremlin in June 2023, Surovikin completely disappeared from the public.
