ICAN: Putin placing Russian nuclear weapons on high alert is reckless, dangerous

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) strongly condemns Putin’s order to put Russian nuclear weapons forces on high alert. This is incredibly dangerous and irresponsible, especially during a time of war and high tension. Full statement:

The world moved closer to a nuclear catastrophe with the order by Russian President Vladimir Putin to put his nuclear arsenal in combat readiness amidst his country’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. ICAN strongly condemns Putin’s order to put Russian nuclear weapons forces on high alert. This is incredibly dangerous and irresponsible, especially during a time of war and high tension. ICAN calls for an immediate ceasefire and retraction of Russian forces from Ukraine. ICAN urges all nuclear armed states to stand down their nuclear forces and refrain from threatening to use weapons of mass destruction. Any use of nuclear weapons would cause catastrophic humanitarian suffering and the fallout - radioactive, economic, political, will be harming people for generations.

Right now, the dangerous policy of so-called nuclear deterrence is used to enable the continued invasion of Ukraine by Russia. It does not keep the peace, it allows for war to be carried out against Ukrainian people.

Any theory which is based on the willingness to mass murder civilians and is kept in check by little more than sheer luck will eventually lead to a horrific humanitarian catastrophe. That’s what is being risked right now, and it must stop. In order to protect ourselves from nuclear war, the world must support the United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons - the only comprehensive legally-binding prohibition which bans the development, possession, threats of use, and use of nuclear weapons and contains a framework for their verifiable dismantlement. ICAN calls on all states, including the nuclear-armed states, to join the TPNW and achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons.

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