Maximum Risk: where you don't want to be if nuclear war breaks out between Russia and the US

Nuclear war is a worry that disappeared after the fall of the Soviet Union. However, tensions between Russia and the United States have been escalating since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, and the possibility of a nuclear conflict is back in the public consciousness. If something did happen, could you survive the exchange?

While it isn't likely that we'll see Russia or the United States launch a nuclear strike against the other over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. If the two powers did come to nuclear blows it wouldn't be good for either nation since both could inflict a lot of damage on the other.

Russia is the world’s largest nuclear power with an estimated stockpile of roughly 4,380 warheads with an additional 1,200 waiting to be dismantled as of March 2024 according to the Federation of American Scientists. If Putin used one of his tactical nuclear devices in Ukraine, it could start a chain reaction that leads to war. 

In the event of a nuclear war that involved Russia and the United States, it would certainly also involve America’s NATO allies—a situation that would make several countries places you wouldn't want to be once the missiles began flying.

Photo Credit: Screenshot / YouTube @alexglaser8632

If Vladimir Putin was fighting a nuclear war then those living in the United States could expect most of the country's major cities would be destroyed by Russia’s first volley of intercontinental ballistic missiles. 

Cities like New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washinton D.C. would be among the first struck according to a map created by CBS News journalist John Dodge in 2015. 

Dodge used open-source data from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) and the National Resource Defense Council to plot likely Russian nuclear targets in the United States. 

Also on the list, you’ll find large clusters of targets in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming—places which house a substantial portion of America’s nuclear arsenal. 

"Some of the larger targets include active nuclear plants,” wrote The Independent’s Gustaf Kilander, who reevaluated Dodge’s map and its targets in a February 10th, 2023 article on the subject. 

“There are approximately 90 plants across the US,” Kilander added, “with some located in Alabama, Arizona, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.”

With the United States being Russia’s primary antagonist—and the second-largest nuclear world power with an arsenal of 3,708 warheads and 1,336 retired warheads waiting to be dismantled as of May 2024 according to the Federation of American Scientists—the country would probably be one of the worst places to be if a nuclear war broke out. 

Russian bombs wouldn't likely also end up targeting the United Kingdom in any nuclear war scenario and it's not hard to see how that could unfold in today's geopolitical climate seeing as how London has been one of the staunchest supporters of Ukraine since Moscow launched its 2022 invasion of the country.

According to Newsweek’s Brendan Cole, by July 2022, Putin alone had threatened to bomb the United Kingdom at least 35 times since Russia invaded Ukraine, which might make the country the second worst place to be in the event of a nuclear war with Russia. 

Most of the UK’s major cities would be under threat with the Daily Star’s Adam Cailler reporting in September 2022 that a Cold War Era map, discovered in the country’s National Archives, revealed where Russian forces would bomb. 

“Targets at the time were set to include Central London, Edinburgh, Teesside, Leicester, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Hull, York, Dover, Cambridge, Maidstone, Huddersfield, Wolverhampton, Coventry, and Sheffield,” Cailler wrote, and it's likely those targets haven't changed much.

“Alongside these population centers were 23 RAF bases, 14 USAF bases, 10 radar stations, eight military command centers, and 13 Royal Navy bases,” The Daily Star reporter added, which would essentially cover the entire British Isles in destruction. 

Russia wouldn't escape the destruction of a possible nuclear war either, even if Putin was the first to act. In the event of a first strike from Russia, the United States and its NATO allies would retaliate in force.  

President Joe Biden warned Putin in October 2022 that he would face “Armageddon” if he even tried to use one tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. 

While the world has no concrete data on which NATO countries would be bombed in the event of Nuclear war with Russia, Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscomos said that in “a nuclear war, NATO countries will be destroyed by us in half an hour,” making them a very dangerous place to be if war breaks out. 

Even if you don’t live in a country that could be directly affected by a nuclear exchange, it might not matter according to new research published in August, 2023.

“Even a small conflict in which two nations unleash nuclear weapons on each other could lead to worldwide famine,” wrote Alexandra Witze. 

“Soot from burning cities would encircle the planet and cool it by reflecting sunlight back into space," Witze added, "this in turn would cause global crop failures that… could put five billion people on the brink of death.” 

So in the event of a nuclear war between Russia and the United States, there’s really no place that's safe—a thought that really should be keeping you up at night. 

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