Kyiv braces for a conventional showdown with Moscow in Donbas; Pyongyang hones its own nuclear trump card

(Originally published April 18 in “What in the World“) North Korea over the weekend tested two guided missiles it suggested would improve its ability to deliver tactical nuclear weapons. Analysts say tactical nukes could either to help it in a battle with South Korea or simply help deter any interference—just as Russia has used its nuclear capability to deter any direct intervention by the United States and its allies in Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine are preparing for a massive conventional battle in the open land of eastern Ukraine, where heavy artillery and tanks are likely to go head to head. Ukrainian forces appear to be at a severe disadvantage in this terrain, with supply lines stretched to the country’s western border and short on the tanks, anti-tank missiles and fighter jets Ukraine has pleaded for from former Soviet members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. So far it has received tanks from the Czech Republic and anti-aircarft systems from Slovakia.

That may be far from enough, though. More people are coming around to the view that Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t bluffing when it comes to using nuclear weapons to win in Ukraine, from former Soviet leader Nikita Kruschchev’s great-granddaughter to the Pope. And North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is certainly no less crazy than Putin.