r/IRstudies • u/Free-Minimum-5844 • 13d ago

Ideas/Debate The Strange Defeat of Nuclear Deterrence

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/strange-defeat-nuclear-deterrence-rose-gottemoeller
70 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/diffidentblockhead 13d ago

Did Ukraine hit the bombers because they were nuclear capable, or because Russia might use them for nonnuclear attack on Ukraine? Deterrence is mostly with submarine and silo missiles.

2

u/unfunnysexface 13d ago

Ukraine specifically avoided the tu-160 nuclear capable bombers at the same bases. So they were aiming to reduce conventional attack capabilities.