If every major city is blotted out with a nuclear fireball, I fail to see what the problem is. I can't speak to Europe, but in North America, all the left wing people live in the urban centers. Russia wouldn't be killing millions of Americans, they'd be killing millions of democrats.
The types of nukes that Russia has on its ICBMs would cause about a 10 mile diameter area of destruction. The actual diameter will vary tremendously depending on the terrain, with hills blocking the effects of the blast wave. These warheads are optimized for overpressure and heat, not radiation. Thus most of the damage will be caused by the blast effect or the thermal fires. Additionally, air burst nukes cause less fallout than ground detonated warheads. Because of uncertainty of the launch vehicles and warheads, a single site will be targeted by multiple nukes. A U.S. target would be targeted by 7 nukes to achieve a >90% destruction probability, and I would expect the Russians to be similar. So you can expect NYC to be hit multiple times with nuclear warheads.
These nukes will cause radiation effects, both with direct radiation and with irradiated debris (aka fallout). Studies of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed that most of the people affected by radiation were within the fire damage area, or down range of the fallout. The deadly effects of alpha and beta radiation can be mostly avoided by staying inside and not breathing in irradiated dust and smoke. Immediately after a nuclear detonation, you should go inside, close all the doors and windows, and close the blinds. You should also draw a bath to use as a water source and duct tape the edges of the windows and doors to help better seal them. After about 48 hours, the outside radiation should be safe enough to go outside. You should douse everything outside with water to wash off any fallout, and be very careful not to touch the runoff. A good idea would be to have a gas mask with a serviceable filter and working seal. Keep two days worth of food and water on hand. If you are close enough to receive a fatal level of gamma radiation, well RIP to you since there's not much you can do to prevent that. But you likely died in the blast or fire, so it really isn't that relevant.
The boogeyman of nukes causing the apocalypse is just Hollywood BS. During the cold war, both the right and the left had an incentive to hype up the deadly effects of nuclear weapons. And Hollywood furiously masturbates to fear porn (the playground scene in T2 is complete BS).
Part of my job when I was in the Army was nuclear defense.
And the rest of the US as well.
If you want just NYC and SF, you should pick out a lesser target. Archangelsk or something.
If every major city is blotted out with a nuclear fireball, I fail to see what the problem is. I can't speak to Europe, but in North America, all the left wing people live in the urban centers. Russia wouldn't be killing millions of Americans, they'd be killing millions of democrats.
The fallout would kill nearly everyone outside urban centers as well.
No it wouldn't, that's not how nukes work.
The types of nukes that Russia has on its ICBMs would cause about a 10 mile diameter area of destruction. The actual diameter will vary tremendously depending on the terrain, with hills blocking the effects of the blast wave. These warheads are optimized for overpressure and heat, not radiation. Thus most of the damage will be caused by the blast effect or the thermal fires. Additionally, air burst nukes cause less fallout than ground detonated warheads. Because of uncertainty of the launch vehicles and warheads, a single site will be targeted by multiple nukes. A U.S. target would be targeted by 7 nukes to achieve a >90% destruction probability, and I would expect the Russians to be similar. So you can expect NYC to be hit multiple times with nuclear warheads.
These nukes will cause radiation effects, both with direct radiation and with irradiated debris (aka fallout). Studies of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed that most of the people affected by radiation were within the fire damage area, or down range of the fallout. The deadly effects of alpha and beta radiation can be mostly avoided by staying inside and not breathing in irradiated dust and smoke. Immediately after a nuclear detonation, you should go inside, close all the doors and windows, and close the blinds. You should also draw a bath to use as a water source and duct tape the edges of the windows and doors to help better seal them. After about 48 hours, the outside radiation should be safe enough to go outside. You should douse everything outside with water to wash off any fallout, and be very careful not to touch the runoff. A good idea would be to have a gas mask with a serviceable filter and working seal. Keep two days worth of food and water on hand. If you are close enough to receive a fatal level of gamma radiation, well RIP to you since there's not much you can do to prevent that. But you likely died in the blast or fire, so it really isn't that relevant.
The boogeyman of nukes causing the apocalypse is just Hollywood BS. During the cold war, both the right and the left had an incentive to hype up the deadly effects of nuclear weapons. And Hollywood furiously masturbates to fear porn (the playground scene in T2 is complete BS).
Part of my job when I was in the Army was nuclear defense.