That one time in 1995 when Russia almost used nuclear missiles against the United States
SUMMARY
Russia almost blew the United States away with a nuclear strike in 1995 after mistakenly thinking it was under attack. If it weren't for Russia's then-president Boris Yeltsin, America as we know it wouldn't exist. Under the "launch-on-warning" policy used by both nations, Russia had 30 minutes to decide to nuke us but Yeltsin only had five.
Here's how this monumental nuclear mistake almost took place:
Years later in 2023, Amid its war in Ukraine, and sending nuclear-armed ships to sea for the first time in decades, Russia suspended participation in the New START Treaty, its only remaining nuclear arms agreement with the United States. The move was a harder about face in Russian relations with the West and turned up the heat in tensions between European allies and Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
After a year of brutal warfare in which no Russian objectives had been met, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech just hours before U.S. President Joe Biden was set to deliver a speech of his own from Poland. Putin reiterated the false claim that the West started the war in Ukraine while rolling back its nuclear treaty obligations.
