I started this post on March 19, 2022. I am trying to understand how many Ukrainian deaths it would take for NATO countries to become militarily involved to stop Putin or is their involvement only dependent on Russia attacking a NATO country. It is demoralizing.
By NATO countries only focusing on sanctions and giving Ukraine “ground” military equipment, they are giving Putin time to strengthen his position through his mostly civilian-areas oriented dumb bombing by not calling his nuclear bluff.
Putin's military strikes are from the air while his ground forces are thwarted by the Ukrainians.
If President Biden allowed Poland to transfer their MiG planes to Ukraine then I would feel safer. Since Ukraine is not able to create their own "no-fly" zone, then I have to answer my tweet.
I wonder how many Ukrainian people NATO countries will allow Russia to kill that is the equivalent to a Russian nuclear attack using the current method of indiscriminate dumb bombing.
Ukraine's population is close to 44 million.
UK Ministry of Defence's Russian Ukraine invasion map.
I am no genius but I understand that when the full accountability of the death toll is taken it will be close to the equivalent of a nuclear attack death toll.
I hit a roadblock when trying to determine the death toll from a nuclear attack. Two of the websites I looked at were:
Ukraine war: Could Russia use tactical nuclear weapons? gives much information about Russia's arsenal.
Near the end of the long section, “Limited Nuclear War” in The Devastating Effects of Nuclear Weapons, it says:
“In one hypothetical attack considered by the congressional Office of Technology Assessment, ten Soviet SS-18 missiles, each with eight 1-megaton warheads, attack United States’ oil refineries. The result is destruction of two-thirds of the U.S. oil-refining capability. And even with some evacuation of major cities in the hypothetical crisis leading to the attack, 5 million Americans are killed.
Each of these “limited” nuclear attack scenarios kills millions of Americans — many, many times the 1.2 million killed in all the wars in our nation’s history.”
I am using Mariupol as the basis for Russia's replication of capturing and cutting off cities. The “official” death tolls for the city of Mariupol and the country of Ukraine are massively different.
On March 19, 2022, Reuters reported:
“Officials in Mariupol say 2,500 people have died since Russian forces poured across the Ukrainian border on Feb. 24.”
However, on March 20, 2022, NPR said that
‘ “The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says 902 civilians have been killed and another 1,459 have been wounded so far in the war in Ukraine. The office warned that the actual number is likely "considerably higher." ‘
Still not having found all the survivors in the bombed theater in the “90% destroyed" city, a bombing of an “art school sheltering some 400 people” has no update on number of survivors. The same article mentioned that, at least, 130 people had survived the theater attack while there are “more than 1,300 believed to be inside”.
Since Mariupol is surrounded by the Russians, its entrapped citizens are at the mercy of their evil captors.
Mariupol searches for survivors amid rubble of theatre says:
"The port city is encircled by Russian forces and has seen fierce bombardment. A statement from the city council said that about 30,000 residents had managed to escape so far, but more than 350,000 remained stuck there."
Ukraine refuses to surrender Mariupol as Russia warns of humanitarian 'catastrophe’ says:
“It said defenders who did so were guaranteed safe passage out of the city and humanitarian corridors would be opened from 1000 Moscow time (0700 GMT) on Monday.”
Google suggested “Russian concentration camps 2022” after I searched for “Russian internment camp” which lead me to find this article: U.N. ambassador disturbed by reports of Russians seizing and deporting Ukrainians in which Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said:
“It is unconscionable for Russia to force Ukrainian citizens into Russia and put them in what will basically be concentration and prisoner camps, so this is something that we need to verify. Russia should not be moving Ukrainian citizens against their will into Russia.”
I have to stop writing so I do not demoralize myself further.
Thank you for reading.
March 23, 2022, Update:
I saw this validating article on Yahoo.com.
Biden's risk-averse approach to Russia could create greater threat, experts say
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/experts-bidens-risk-averse-approach-172800122.html
It's all so awful. I agree that NATO needs to do more to save lives, right now. This poem reminded me of what generations before us went through in WWI and WWII:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47657/poem-i-lived-in-the-first-century-of-world-wars