The UN secretary-general said nuclear war is back within the realm of possibility after Russia warned it was putting its nuclear forces on alert.
The Russian state media detailed how Moscow would destroy the US after the collapse of the nuclear treaty.
Russian state TV said the Pentagon, Camp David, Jim Creek Naval Radio Station in Washington, and Fort Ritchie in Maryland would be targets, according to a report.
The latter two have been closed for over two decades.
It's best to take its claims with a grain of salt, with most everything from the Russia or its heavily censored media. Insider got an expert opinion on where Moscow would likely try to strike, instead of taking Russia's word for it.
Russian state media says that Putin would destroy these 5 US targets.
Since the Cold War, the US and Russia have drawn up plans on how to best wage nuclear war against each other, and while large population centers with huge cultural impact may seem like obvious choices, strategists believe a nuclear attack will focus on counteracting the enemy's nuclear forces.
As the Cold War progressed and improvements in nuclear weapons and intelligence-collection technologies enabled greater precision in where those weapons were aimed, the emphasis in targeting shifted.
The map shows the points Russia would have to attack to wipe out the US's nuclear forces.
Even a massive strike like this wouldn't guarantee anything, as this map shows targets for an all-out attack on the US's fixed nuclear infrastructure, weapons, and command-and-control centers.
Schwartz told Insider that it was unlikely that the attack would be successful. The stuff you missed will be coming back at you if a few weapons escape.
The US nuclear submarine could retaliate even if every single US intercontinental missile silo were flattened.
At any given time, the US has four to five nuclear-armed submarines that are on alert in their patrol areas waiting for orders to launch.
Even high-ranking officials in the US military don't know where the silent submarines are, and there's no way Russia could chase them all down before they fired back, which Schwartz said could be done in as little as 5 to 15 minutes.
Depending on how the wind blew, a strike on a relatively small area could lead to death and destruction across the US. That is because of something.
The bulk of the US's nuclear forces are far from population centers. If you live next to an ICBM silo, fear not.
According to Schwartz, there is a small chance that Russia could survive a nuclear attack on the US. Schwartz said that people in big cities like New York and Los Angeles should not worry about being hit by a nuclear weapon.
Alex Lockie wrote the initial version of the article.
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