Ask HN: How to get immediately notified in case of nuclear attack on Ukraine?
Hi,
I'm visiting my family in a country that is neighboring Ukraine and would like to immediately return back to the US in case of a nuclear attack.
Is there any way to get notified about the attack so I can book a flight as soon as possible?
Thanks
13 comments
[ 29.8 ms ] story [ 239 ms ] thread(I'm just one more border away, already bought my iodide...)
As a matter of fact, it's likely the attack would be pre-announced too.
So maybe move even closer to Ukraine and listen carefully.
"Wiping clean" kilometers of "a front line" (which is relatively "thin") would involve so many nukes and would involve so many non-army causalties that it doesn't make sense to use them for the purpose.
Nukes have a circular effective area, so you want to use them on well-populated areas for maximum effect. Or well, don't want to use them at all unless you are looking for annihilation, which I still hope Putin is not looking for despite all the unreasonables (craziness) he exhibited so far.
A few tactical nukes will wipe clean a front line. If putin's regime army on a front line does vanish in matter of few hours, expect the worst.
Deterrence nukes are those which will wipe clean all major Ukraine cities.
As far as I understood putin's regime goals, true or not:
- the since-2014 conflict in east-ukraine is "over".
- the so-called neo-nazi azov bataillon was wiped (now they should deal with their own neo-nazi wagner pmc...)
- the drug addicts???
- Some of the newly discovered fossil gas reserverd in ukrainian sea and land are under putin's regime control.
- other true or false goals.
It’s tactical and strategic, and they both serve a deterrence role (and even the tactical/strategic divide is debated as to its significance.)
If you're counting on flying away from Ukraine's neighbour after an attack like that, that's already not going to work. Flights were cancelled for over 2 days and only slowly restarted after 9/11. And that was basically nothing in comparison. In reality airports close to the Ukraine borders are already used by the military flights which take priority over civilian traffic. Main roads leading that way see regular military traffic.
The extra problem with booking the flights is that if there's a nuclear attack, the available options will not be updated immediately - you may book a ghost flight and then again have to fight with everyone else for a place on the new schedule.
Sorry, I don't have a good positive suggestion for transport. But if you really want to make a good plan, I'd check: where to get food directly from the farms in the area (there will be a run on the shops like we've never seen with covid), and where the local underground shelter is (most towns around that area have buildings from the times when bomb shelters were common - you can even see the signage for them sometimes), and... I guess figure out what you'd do in case of temporary martial law.