U.S. officials believe that the likelihood of Russian President Putin using tactical nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine now is possibly the highest ever after February 24, but this is still unlikely.
CNN reported this, citing comments from many officials with access to intelligence.
“The threat is certainly “elevated” compared to earlier in the year, according to multiple sources. The US in recent months has been privately warning Russia not to take such a catastrophic step. But so far, there are no signs that Russia is imminently planning their use and the “general assessment hasn’t changed,” the publication said.
In a comment to the publication, several U.S. Department of Defense representatives also said that signs of the movement of nuclear weapons by Russia have not yet been noticed, stressing that the U.S. will be able to detect the movement of even smaller tactical warheads by the aggressor state.
Two sources familiar with the intelligence expressed the opinion that the general sense inside the U.S. government is that Putin's threat of using nuclear weapons is higher than before, based primarily on Putin's rhetoric and data on the losses of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, and not on any reliable data that the Kremlin is seriously considering this option.
Recall that earlier Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine Oleksii Danilov said that a nuclear strike will not stop Ukrainians, they will continue to defend their land.
Meanwhile, Head of the Center for Military Legal Research Oleksandr Musienko believes that the nuclear weapons of the Russian Federation may be located in the Crimea and Kaliningrad.
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