https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/29846893/russia-target-sites-europe-nuke-missiles-nato/
The secret nuclear dossier states Russia could unleash massive preemptive attacks “from various directions” in the event of a conflict with Nato.
It shows Russian warships are primed to use tactical nuclear weapons in the early stages of a major conflict.
Tactical nuclear weapons have a smaller destructive payload than a strategic nuclear weapons – but would still be devastating.
The papers authors stressed the advantage of going nuclear early.
The papers also stressed the value of a “demonstration strike” in a remote, unpoplated area to scare western countries.
Western officials fear Putin was planning such a strike in the first year of the war in Ukraine amid fury at western support for Kyiv.
The Kremlin’s Baltic Fleet based at Kaliningrad would target France and Germany, the leaked papers revealed.
The dossier pre-dates the war in Ukraine but their contents emerged amid a drumbeat of nuclear threats from Putin and his top stooges.
Putin stressed Russia is ready to use its doomsday weapons and he ordered a major rehearsal in May over anger at Britain’s support for Ukraine.
The FT said the papers showed Russia was able to launch nukes from ships which has “significant extra risks of escalation or accidents”.
The maps also showed targets in Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran and China, North and South Korea and Japan.
Experts said the maps showed only a tiny fraction of the “hundreds of not thousands of targets mapped across Europe.”