Unfortunately, in recent history there have already been many cases when war came to the city. And the residents who did not leave were forced to somehow survive in the terrible conditions of street fighting. What to do if war starts, how to save yourself and your loved ones without becoming an accidental victim of a military conflict?
There are various hypotheses and assumptions about how a war might start. However, the most important thing will be how global the upcoming conflict will be and what types of weapons will be used in it. So, if weapons of mass destruction are used, perhaps no preparations will help. However, the reality of the modern world is that war can be fought with conventional weapons. And in such conditions, you should clearly know what to do if war breaks out. We will not consider the actions of those liable for military service, or people who decided to repay their debt to the Motherland. Let's focus our attention on the necessary actions for civilians at a time when the war is already going on directly in the city.
What to do if a war involving conventional weapons breaks out
If a war breaks out in the city, the main task becomes to get out of the city as soon as possible. This is necessary to be away from the epicenter of hostilities. Any civilians during war are always in mortal danger. So, in the confusion of a battle, any person can be confused with a soldier and open fire to kill. It will also be mortally dangerous to find yourself in the sector of artillery fire or to come under an air raid. Or become an accidental witness to a street battle involving a tank.
But even if the battlefield remains with our own, the answer to the question of what to do if war breaks out is still obvious. We need to leave the city as soon as possible. So, it always remains a mystery in what condition this or that fighter will end up. Especially at the sight of an incomprehensible silhouette appearing, hiding behind the wall of a destroyed building. And most likely, he will shoot first, and only then, if the situation allows, will he begin to figure out who he shot at. And this, unfortunately, is the essence of the war. Sometimes they shoot first so as not to shoot at you, and only then they sort it out.
In addition, in your apartment, if of course it remains intact, soon after the start of hostilities there will definitely be no light, water, or Internet. The sewerage system will stop working. Sooner or later, there will be interruptions in mobile communications. Also, there may be long-lasting fires that there will be no one to put out. In addition, one fine day people in uniform may come and say that there will now be a machine gun point here. All you have to do is resign yourself and leave, since during a war property no longer means anything. And in such conditions, of course, you won’t last long. You need to take a supply of essentials with you and prepare to leave.
Ukraine provokes Russia to use energy weapons
“Currently, one legislation applies for ordinary citizens of the country, and another for participants in hostilities in Donbass. They often evade responsibility for their criminal actions,” Kiev political scientist Vladimir Skachko told the newspaper VZGLYAD, commenting on the detention of a man who threatened to detonate a grenade in the Ukrainian government building.
“After the events of 2014, the so-called grenade period began in Ukraine, because citizens found themselves in possession of a huge amount of unregistered weapons that poured out from the combat zone in Donbass,” noted Ukrainian political scientist Vladimir Skachko.
In his opinion, this not only increased the crime situation in the country, but also made it especially cruel. “By analogy with Chekhov’s principle about a gun that is sure to fire, a grenade in someone’s pocket will sooner or later also explode,” the expert explained.
Skachko pointed out that more than 300 thousand people who took part in the hostilities in Donbass, firstly, cannot find work, and secondly, do not want to look for it. “Therefore, they have become a mass that feeds both paramilitary structures and criminals. And those who have not managed to gain a foothold in either the first or the second sphere are trying to solve their problems with the help of pistols and grenades, even if we are talking about domestic conflicts,” the political scientist believes.
At the same time, in Ukraine there is a situation of complete impunity for participants in the hostilities in Donbass. “By and large, one legislation applies for ordinary citizens, and another for participants in hostilities in Donbass. It’s no secret that many “patriots” escape punishment for their criminal actions,” the expert pointed out.
He also drew attention to the fact that during the detention of “the ATO officer with a grenade, all participants in the process spoke Russian.” “This is a natural reflection of the linguistic situation both in the combat zone and throughout Ukraine. Among those fighting, about 80% come from Russian-speaking regions. In conditions of poverty and pressure from propaganda about the Russian threat, people find income in war,” the interlocutor clarified.
In addition, the political scientist does not exclude the possibility that “the citizen who entered the government building with a grenade managed to get there because among the Cabinet guards there were people who were participants in the war like him.”
“We'll see how this story ends. The Cabinet of Ministers is, after all, a state building, and in the event of an attack, the guards must open fire on the attacker. Surprisingly, in this situation, as we see, they acted differently. Now, probably, the Ukrainian authorities will try to hush up this incident. I think everyone will let it go. Maybe not now, but after some time for sure. First, they will play at the power’s severity, and then they will release this man,” Skachko concluded.
Earlier, the head of the country's national police, Igor Klimenko, said that a man who threatened to detonate a grenade in the Ukrainian government building was detained; he was a participant in the fighting in Donbass, and the ammunition in his hands was live.
“We have just completed a special operation to neutralize a citizen. He will be a suspect, the prosecutor's office will make a decision. The situation is not standard, because this was a participant in the ATO (special operation in Donbass), who went through combat operations and was wounded twice, including a traumatic brain injury. He committed this crime due to the fact that such circumstances developed for him,” Klimenko said.
He also said that the police would open a case against the person who seized the building of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in Kyiv under four articles, including the most serious one – “hostage-taking”, which provides for a penalty of up to 15 years in prison. At the same time, the head of the National Police noted that the man had a live grenade, “which could harm both people and the government building.”
Klimenko added that negotiations with those who seized the government building were conducted by his friend, who persuaded him to surrender. They lasted for about ten minutes. SWAT then escorted the man out of the building.
On Wednesday morning, a man threatening to detonate a grenade entered the Ukrainian government building. The man pulled the pin and said that the building had been captured, and he himself would not get out of there alive. According to media reports, the invader turned out to be a former fighter of the nationalist battalion “Aidar”; he had suffered a shell shock in the past; the weapon in his hands was most likely military. Later, a special operation was launched in the building of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and the man was detained.
Watch even more videos on the VZGLYAD YouTube channel
What should you prepare in advance?
Prepare your emergency bag in advance. In our case, this is a comfortable backpack that will contain everything you need to survive autonomously for several days. These are products, clothes, documents and much more. Treat this with utmost care. Read about what should be in your emergency suitcase here (list). At the same time, it is important that all elements of your wardrobe are exclusively civilian and have nothing to do with army ammunition. Otherwise, when meeting with the military, additional questions may arise. Moreover, you may be suspected of involvement in fighting on the enemy’s side. And this should under no circumstances be allowed. Prepare yourself psychologically that you are exclusively a civilian. And we need to emphasize this in every possible way. Including his behavior, as well as purely civilian clothes.
What will happen if a nuclear war breaks out?
Let's imagine that one of the powers initiated the launch of bombs and used a means of mass destruction against another country, which also has atomic power.
After pressing the start button, within a few minutes, radars located on satellites in low-Earth orbit will immediately calculate the approximate flight direction, coordinates of the air projectile, its speed and approximate time of approach to the target.
The air defense system of the attacked state will fire about ten interceptor missiles towards the approaching threat and try to shoot down the enemy element in the air.
Since there have never been incidents involving the use of intercontinental ballistic warheads carrying a thermonuclear charge, it is impossible to accurately predict the response of a state that has come under attack .
Let's consider several possible scenarios for the development of the situation:
- The missile defense of the attacked power successfully repels the attack and shoots down the warhead in the air. If a single shell was fired, most likely the commander-in-chief of the army that repelled the attack will try to contact the attacking side and find out the reason for the sudden aggression in order to exclude an error or accident of the situation . Having received confirmation that the launch was accidental or, on the contrary, a declaration of a military conflict, the army leadership makes a decision on response actions.
- The aggressor's volleys were deliberately launched from many points, some of them overcome enemy air defenses and reach their targets. Depending on the power and number of bombs, certain consequences occur for both parties to the conflict.
- If the total power of ammunition that reached the targets did not exceed 200 megatons of TNT equivalent, but the volume of detonated explosives came very close to this mark. Today, no country can withstand such an attack without total destruction of military and civilian infrastructure. Most likely, the state on whose territory such a volume of shells will be targeted will not be able to resist effectively; in the military sense, it will be destroyed, and a sufficiently large number of the civilian population will remain alive.
- The total force of the explosive potential has significantly exceeded 200 megatons (MT) and will be in the region of 500 MT in TNT equivalent. Such bombing is capable of completely destroying states such as Israel, North Korea, England, France, and Pakistan. In addition, radiation from such a volume of almost simultaneously detonated shells will cause colossal damage to neighboring territories.
- The power of the applied thermonuclear potential exceeded 1000 megatons or more. There is an assumption that a one-time explosion with a capacity of over 200 million tons of TNT is capable of displacing the Earth from its orbit. The well-known “Tsar Bomba,” which was developed in October 1961 by order of N.S. Khrushchev, was supposed to have exactly this power. But a group of physicists led by I.V. Kurchatov dissuaded the leader of the USSR from the idea of detonating such a powerful charge precisely because of the possible deviation and subsequent departure of our planet from orbit. As a result, the power of the explosion was approximately 60 megatons, which was the most destructive explosion in the entire history of mankind. So the detonation of 1000 or more megatons of nuclear weapons in a short period of time is fraught with the most dire consequences, both on the scale of any country and on the scale of the entire planet .
- Most countries have systems of inevitable retaliation in their arsenal. In Russia, for example, this system is called “Perimeter”. The essence of these systems is that it does not matter whether military installations and infrastructure in the territory subject to surprise bombing will be hit. Even if the command is completely destroyed and the airfields are destroyed, then a system such as “Perimeter” will automatically release all the warheads remaining in the country at the enemy.
In this video, political scientist Igor Vertin will tell you what to do if a war breaks out in your city, all possible outcomes of events, what you need to be prepared for:
How to properly leave the city?
To begin with, you need to figure out what the essence of the conflict is and what might threaten you when meeting with the military. Thus, there is a war based on hostility towards a certain people, as has happened many times before. In this case, you should never get caught. And to do this, you should leave the city in advance. Even before the war comes to it. However, even if you seem to be in no danger, leave anyway, making sure that civilians are not harmed and that active hostilities are over.
What is the best time to leave the city?
A lot depends on choosing the right time of day to leave the city. So, night and evening time should be immediately excluded . As a rule, it is this that is used for sabotage. Therefore, at night there is a high probability of dying. Choose the morning and walk completely openly, without hiding.
If there is an opportunity to hide somewhere during the journey, do not do it. Choose a route with fewer checkpoints. It is better if you have some semblance of a white flag in your hands. With all your appearance you must make it clear that you are a refugee and are leaving the city.
When you pass the checkpoints, be prepared to fully answer all the questions that military personnel may ask you: last name, first name, occupation, place of registration, final point of the route, and so on. Also, do not forget the full set of documents that should be in the emergency suitcase. Without them, nowhere.
The main task when communicating with the military is to show with all your appearance that you are a purely civilian person. Moreover, they are completely ready to do what they tell you. So, be prepared to share food or money if necessary. This should not be avoided if there is a conversation about whether you will be released from the city or not. The main thing is that they don’t suspect you of anything and let you go.
So who fights if wars are prohibited?
First of all, “radishes, bad people” who laid their guns on the norms of international law, both military and criminal.
Secondly, if you have a bilateral treaty of mutual assistance and cooperation, and your partner asks you to intervene, you have the right, and perhaps even the obligation, to provide military assistance in the amount required. Such an agreement, for example, was concluded in 1980 between the USSR and the Syrian Arab Republic. And according to Art. 6 of this agreement in 2015, the Syrian government turned to Russia, the successor of the USSR, with a request to station an air group in Khmeimim for defensive purposes.
(Photo source)
Thirdly, you can fight under a “UN mandate”. The UN Security Council, by adopting a resolution, decides to deploy a peacekeeping operation in which all interested parties will take part. The highlight here is that the most natural war—blood and guts and that’s all—is called “peacekeeping,” in full accordance with George Orwell’s dystopia “1984.”
However, if the UN Security Council does not give permission to start an operation, someone constantly vetoes your brilliant military initiatives, then... well, you understand, you can lay the gun on both the Security Council and the entire General Assembly. There are only two rules here. First, you must be a nuclear superpower with a ton of allies. And secondly... however, the rest doesn’t matter.
Forecasts of analysts and military experts
One of the most widely publicized conflicts involving the risk of using nuclear weapons was Kim Jong-un's radical statements about a strike on the US territory in Hawaii.
The escalation was at its highest in 2021, the year when North Korea successfully tested the Hwasong 12 and Hwasong 15 missiles, after which it announced that it now fully possesses the means to deliver nuclear warheads to almost anywhere on the planet.
Expert opinions on global military conflicts vary greatly. Someone argues that the likelihood of a nuclear war now is not so high. The reason for this is the existing balance of nuclear forces of the two largest players in world geopolitics - the United States and Russia.
Regular improvement of air defense and means of delivering nuclear bombs led to the fact that with the advent of hypersonic missiles, rival countries had a situation where all types of existing anti-missile systems became unable to repel an attack during an attack.
Will there be a Third World War?
Let's summarize - if one side uses atomic weapons, the country will be just as defenseless in the event of retaliatory actions from the opponent - this is one of the main deterrent reasons .
It is easy to fight with rifles and cannons against stones and spears; it was the technological gap that allowed the aggressor to start a war, taking advantage of his advantage. Now, however, none of the powers of the nuclear club has a clear superiority
What exactly will sooner or later become the trigger for the start of the Third, and perhaps the last war for humanity, no one can say for sure. Each of the local military conflicts currently raging on our planet is capable of becoming a catalyst in the process of starting a large-scale nuclear disaster.
