Russia's Top Nuke Targets

it would destroy vital systems throughout the city, including electronic communications, medical technology, and the power grid itself. This would make any emergency response much more difficult and lead to even more casualties. However, in the event of a real nuclear war, Russia would not stop there. Los Angeles is another obvious target, as it is the second largest city in the country and a major source of American cultural wealth and power. Los Angeles is not as densely populated as New York City, with about 4 million residents and sprawling low-rise housing. But at this point I probably don't need to tell you that a nuclear explosion in downtown Los Angeles would also be apocalyptic.  Between 500 and 700 thousand could die instantly, with a million and a half more injured.  Los Angeles also has about 5.5 million cars and little public transportation.

Because of this, main roads, even outside the explosion zone, would be almost impossible to use as people flee the radioactive fallout. Los Angeles' chronic drought would also get much worse, potentially leaving millions of people without drinking water. In the center of the country, Chicago and its nearly 3 million residents would likely also be targeted. A nuclear explosion here could instantly kill between 500,000 and 600,000 people and seriously injure more than a million. While a large part of the explosion would explode in Lake Michigan, and the winds would spread the consequences to the north, south and east. The densely populated Great Lakes region would be at risk and would probably also have to be evacuated.

To have any chance of a nuclear war, Putin would have to do everything he could before the West could overwhelm Russia's limited defenses. Due to wind effects, even a small percentage of the nuclear weapons in Russia's arsenal could spread their consequences across much of the United States and make many areas completely uninhabitable. Being far from actual impact sites still might not be a guarantee of safety, especially in more densely populated parts of the country. Given that 80 percent of Americans live east of the Mississippi River, any nuclear attack on the East Coast would be especially deadly. Overall, estimates suggest that the total number killed, injured or exposed to radiation in a Russian nuclear attack could exceed 256 million.

That's three-quarters of the population, in the United States alone. But an attack on the United States would also leave Russia exposed to retaliation from other NATO countries, meaning they too would almost certainly be attacked in the early stages of a nuclear conflict. This could mean major European military facilities such as Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, which coordinates NATO's air and missile defense networks. Observers at Ramstein would be among the first to know if a country like Russia actually launched nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles, but due to their relative geographic proximity, there would be little time for a possible evacuation.

A nuclear explosion over Ramstein could kill up to 30,000 people, while winds could carry radioactive fallout across the continent. Assuming a retaliatory strike not only wipes Moscow off the map, this also makes European

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riskier for Putin in the event of a nuclear attack, as at least some consequences could reach the Kremlin. Other military

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in Europe that could be targeted include NATO's Supreme Allied Command in Belgium, as well as other US bases in Europe such as Caserma Ederle in Italy, which hosts the powerful US 173rd Airborne Brigade. Strategically or economically important cities in Europe are also potential targets.

This includes London, the most populous city in Western Europe, with more than 8.8 million inhabitants. The UK also has approximately 200 nuclear weapons of its own, making it a high-risk target as well. As in New York City, a nuclear explosion over London could instantly kill more than a million people, while the total casualties from the shock wave and radiation could exceed 2.3 million. London is also the capital of the United Kingdom, meaning its government would likely perish in the explosion as well. As with other cities, London's vital infrastructure would also be completely devastated, making any emergency response very difficult.

And coastal winds coming from the Atlantic could carry radiation north to Scotland and west to France and other parts of continental Europe.  Simply put, being hit by a modern nuclear weapon anywhere in the world would be a horrifying scenario. While it's incredibly unlikely that this will happen, it's also pretty obvious that if it did happen, there would be basically no good options. Because of the concept of mutually assured destruction that has kept nuclear war at bay since the 1950s, governments like the United States are ridiculously unprepared to deal with the consequences if it were to occur.

As a New York magazine article recently put it: “More than 70 years ago, the United States became the first and only country to use nuclear weapons in war.   Despite witnessing the immediate and lasting horror of those attacks (despite decades of technological advances in nuclear warfare), the United States remains strikingly unprepared for a similar attack on its own soil. “Much of the short-term response to a nuclear explosion in a city like New York would be improvised, adapted from plans intended for other types of disasters.” Putin knows that firing even a single nuclear weapon would likely mean the end of him, and possibly that of much of Russia, but the fact is that nuclear weapons exist and could theoretically be used at any time in the future.

In an increasingly uncertain world, it would do no harm for governments around the world to step up their nuclear preparations, because the fact is that it is impossible to know the future. But what do you think? What would be the goals of a Russian nuclear attack and how unprepared is the world for that small possibility? Let us know what you think in the comments below and don't forget to subscribe for more military content and analysis.