[jessriedel]

It's not equivalent to nuclear war with Ukraine in either the sense of relative risk (for the reasons I gave) nor in the sense in which the term "nuclear weapons" is actually used. Russia intelligence agents poisoned Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium, but this was not called a nuclear attack because that's not what the term means.

One could argue, at most, that this would be equivalent to a radiological weapon ("dirty bomb"). But even then it wouldn't be correct because of the important difference between purposeful radiological dispersal and radiological dispersal as a side-effect of a legitimate military action.

[adastra22]

It is war, and it involves nuclear things. That’s what he meant by “literal sense,” I think.

[renewiltord]

Ah, behold, my fist is an atomic weapon because ultimately the damage it inflicts is because of the Coulomb repulsion force of the fist atoms with other atoms.

[frabbit]

No. Your fist is a biological weapon.

[Apocryphon]

A kinetic weapon, really.

[3np]

D) All of the above

[renewiltord]

I am Mars made flesh, a glorious warrior brimming with weapons of mass destruction.