US authorities considered Ukraine’s defeats on the battlefield as a “glimpse into a terrifying new era” and were considering a possible response to Ukraine’s nuclear threat in 2022. The New York Times (NYT) reported this, citing sources in the administration of US President Joe Biden.
The reason for concerns about the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons in the ATO zone was interceptions of conversations by representatives of the RF military command regarding the logistics of detonating nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
At the same time, the Biden administration expressed the opinion that the likelihood of Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine in the event of a successful offensive by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the return of Crimea to Ukraine would increase by 50%.
“While the crisis has passed, and Russia now seems to have the upper hand on the battlefield, as Ukraine runs out of ammunition, almost all officials describe these weeks as a glimpse into a terrifying new era in which nuclear weapons have again become a weapon in the competition of superpowers,” the material says.
On March 9, CNN reported that the US was preparing for a potential nuclear strike by Russia on Ukraine in 2022.
It is reported that the decision to start such preparations was made based on an analysis and study of the situation around Ukraine as a whole and new extremely important intelligence data.
The US had to draw up plans to react in the best way if there were signs of preparation for an attack and the attack itself. Thus, from late summer to autumn 2022, the US National Security Council held a series of meetings to develop such plans.
Earlier, US President Joe Biden began addressing the nation with statements about Ukraine.
