War in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin “doesn’t really understand” what nuclear weapons are, according to the Nobel Peace Prize

Winner of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, the Japanese association of atomic bomb survivors, Nihon Hidankyo, urged Russia this Monday, December 9, to stop activating the nuclear threat to prevail in Ukraine. “I think President (Vladimir) Putin doesn’t really understand what nuclear weapons mean to human beings, what kind of weapon it is,” said Terumi Tanaka, co-president of the association. “I don’t think he even thought about it,” added the nonagenarian during a press conference in Oslo on the eve of the Nobel ceremony.

Also read:
Donald Trump: War in Ukraine, exit from NATO, abolition of land rights… what the future American president plans

The Russian president, who regularly raises the threat of the use of nuclear weapons in a more or less explicit manner, recently modified by decree the possibilities for using them. Russia is ready to use “all means” possible to defend itself, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated on Thursday. And on November 21, Moscow demonstrably used an intermediate-range ballistic missile to strike a Ukrainian city, a device designed to carry nuclear weapons, of which it had simply been stripped for this launch. “Vladimir Putin, we want to tell you that nuclear weapons must never be used. It is an act that would go against humanity,” insisted Terumi Tanaka.

The desire for “abolition”

Nihon Hidankyo tirelessly campaigns against these weapons of mass destruction, almost 80 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, relying in particular on the testimonies of survivors, the “hibakusha”. The American nuclear bombings of these two Japanese cities on August 6 and 9, 1945, caused some 214,000 deaths and precipitated the capitulation of Japan and the end of the Second World War. Terumi Tanaka was 13 years old when Nagasaki, where he lived, was pulverized by “the” bomb.

Also read:
War in Ukraine: “Ukraine lost 43,000 soldiers”, should we believe Volodymyr Zelensky’s first official assessment?

Noting that “America created and used this weapon against humanity”, he stressed on Monday that he was not seeking “monetary compensation” from the American authorities. “What we would like to see from the United States is that they abolish their nuclear weapons,” he said. Over time, Nihon Hidankyo’s ranks dwindle. The Japanese government lists around 106,800 “hibakusha” still alive today, whose average age is 85 years old.