The war in Ukraine that was supposed to last not even a week has officially been going on for 8 months. Ukraine, with help from the whole world, has fought off Russia and has been quite successful. They have taken back over 2,300 sq miles of land– but there is still a lot more work has to be done. With the recent success, the chances of Russia using nuclear weapons have now increased. The use of nuclear weapons is the biggest threat the world has to face to date.

Putin has made statements directed at NATO saying that Russia has “more modern weapons than NATO” and that if NATO tried a nuclear strike they would retaliate. With Ukraine being the newest member of NATO, it is quite alarming that it doesn’t seem to bother Putin.  President Biden has warned Putin against using nuclear weapons saying: “Don’t do it.” The United States “is ready to pursue critical arms control measures.” 

The use of nuclear weapons has been a threat since this war started, but now that Russia is losing the chances of Putin utilizing nuclear weapons is even higher. When Ukraine wasn’t a part of NATO, if Russia did decide to use nuclear weapons, the rest of the NATO members did not have a duty to do anything about it or retaliate. Now that Ukraine is a part of NATO, if there is use of nuclear weapons 30 countries including the United States will be getting involved. These are unprecedented times we are living in and these circumstances pose the greatest threat to the world since World War II.