How many nuclear weapons does Russia have, how many Americas, and what would their safety draw mean for mankind?

On February 24th, Russian forces launched an invasion in Ukraine, hitting the site with rockets and escalating conflict that is often estimated to be running into the region as well. Russia has launched 200 rockets since the beginning of the attack in Ukraine, said an American Friday defence official, writes Busines Insider, translates Periscope.

Security experts hope the war in Ukraine will not exceed borders. In a speech last week, the US president said the United States would not be involved in a war with Russia but added:

The United States and its allies will protect every inch of NATO territory”. The United States of America is one of the most powerful NATO member states, along with many European countries, but Ukraine is not.

But what about the use of nuclear weapons?

“I hope it doesn't get past the situation to that point, and I believe there are good chances that this won't happen, but I also think that real danger exists especially if there are two parties that have nuclear weapons”, says Tara Drozdenco, director of the Global Security Programme for Global Business Insider, translates Periscope.

“Ukraine has no nuclear weapons, so the risk of nuclear war, in this scenario would only be if the conflict ever went through with the NATO countries' involvement in this war or the United States of America”, she says.

This increases the risk of confrontation with nuclear weapons because some of NATO countries have nuclear weapons”, she adds, translates Periscope.

Who and how many nuclear weapons are on earth?

The United States has about 5,500 nuclear weapons until Russia, according to the American Federation of Scientists, has about 6,000 nuclear weapons.

Experts Drosdenko says nuclear weapons owned by the United States have a equivalent of 300 kilotons while Russia's nuclear plants have between 50 and 100 kilotons and 500 and 800 kilotons.

“These weapons are modern, they are 20 or 30 times more powerful than the atomic bombs that were dropped on the Hiroshima of Nagasaki”, Drozdenko says.

If the United States and Russia were to use them, potentially this would be the end of the population”, she says, translates Periscope.

What does a single nuclear weapon do?

A single nuclear weapon can easily wipe out an entire city, says professor of nuclear science at Oregano State University, Kathryn Higley for Busines Insiver, translated Periscope.

It's very difficult to say, but this city will survive and this city will not”, she says.

And it depends very much on the size of the gun, what it looks like is the topography where the decomposition is put, which jumps into the air, which on the ground” goes on.

What appears to be a nuclear weapon, when it explodes, and what is the damage it causes, more specifically?

When a nuclear weapon explodes, it first emits a large light, a giant orange ball, and shakes the air. People at the center of the explosion (for example, if a 300 - kiloton weapon was detonated) would be killed immediately until other victims were to commemorate third - degree burns.

According to AsapScience, a 1,000 kiloton nuclear bomb would cause sunburns on a third scale of people up to 5 miles away, second degree burns would affect people who are six miles away and first-degree burns, those that are seven miles away from the nuclear bomb explosion. People who are 53 miles away would cause vomiting.

Let's say you're in a city far away from where atomic bomb exploded it will still destroy buildings where you are located or burn the third degree in body”, says expert Drozednko.

Nuclear weapons are produced that way that they create a huge amount of dust in the air and they have a very high radio activity rate. So high is the radiation rate that releases a nuclear bomb that would be a vatal for cells in our body.

The blast could block sunlight and affect temperature dramatically. Drozdenko says the effects of a nuclear weapon would be so severe that for decades the land can recover.

If a nuclear weapon were to hit Washington, it could kill 300 thousand people, she says.

If a 300 kiloton nuclear weapon were to hit a city the size of Washington, many of the residents would not survive and some near the city would suffer fatal injuries as well.

The bigger the weapon, the bigger the radiation rate”, she says.

The nuclear weapon's shock depends on how countries choose to decouple/remove its safety.

For example, if a nuclear weapon hits the earth, the explosion would produce large levels of radioactivity that would freeze into air, even objects that would have a serious impact on the atmosphere. But if a nuclear weapon explodes into the air, its waves would be striking to the ground.

What countries of the world besides America and Russia have nuclear weapons?

Despite the progress that has been made in reducing the production of nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War, however, the level of production is still high. According to the American Federation of Scientists, there are at least 12,700 nuclear weapons in the world today.

Of them, 90 % are owned by Russia and the United States of America.

(The map of nuclear arsenal states, source FAS: Federation of American Scientists) 

Countries that have nuclear weapons have done some tests on their effects, but it's hard to really know the impact of a nuclear weapon on these modern days, in real life. /Business Insider/ FAS / Subtitles: Periscope.