A Tactical Nuke Would Do Nothing to Change the Ukrainian Battlefield

Wes O'Donnell
4 min readOct 5, 2022
defense.gov. Public Domain.

There is no military reason to use a tactical nuke at this phase in Putin’s war.

But first, what exactly is a “tactical” nuke?

Strangely, there is no real definition of “tactical nuclear weapon.” Many arms control wonks simply use the term “tactical” or “battlefield” nuke to distinguish them from their strategic big…

Wes O'Donnell

Army & Air Force Veteran | Global Security Writer for War is Boring, GEN, OneZero, Soldier of Fortune | Law Student | TEDx Speaker