CIA: In 2022, there was a genuine risk of Russia using nuclear weapons
8 September, 2024 Iskander-K complex of the Russian army. June 2024. Frame from the video of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
In the first year of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there was a genuine risk that Russia would have used tactical nuclear weapons. Bill Burns, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States, shared that such a moment had a place in the fall of 2022 during the successful Ukrainian offensive. According to him, the sudden breakthrough of troops in the northeast of the country stoked fears that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin would use the most extreme measures, causing a flurry of diplomatic activity.
"There was a moment in the fall of 2022 when I think there was a genuine risk of a potential use of tactical nuclear weapons," Burns said. He added that at the end of 2022, on behalf of US President Joe Biden, he had a conversation with Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation.
CIA Director Bill Burns. Photo from the media
At a meeting in Turkey, Burns explained to the Russian official what the consequences of this kind of escalation would be.
"I don't think we can afford to be intimidated by that saber rattling or bullying, but we've got to be mindful of it," Burns noted.
The situation in 2022
In March 2022, the American TV channel CNN reported, citing its own sources, that after the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south at the end of 2022, the United States was "carefully preparing" for the use of tactical or strategic nuclear weapons by Russia in a war against Ukraine. At that time, the Russians began to spread information that Ukraine was allegedly going to use a "dirty bomb" against Russia, which, as American officials feared, could be used as a cover for a Russian nuclear attack.
The Slovenian government's statement on Russia's use of a photo from Slovenia about the so-called "dirty bomb" in Ukraine
Later, The New York Times, citing its own sources, wrote that at the end of 2022, the White House was considering options for responding to a possible Russian nuclear strike on Ukraine. The American response was supposed to be "non-nuclear" but "dramatic" for the Russians.
The Russian military is conducting a new stage of tactical nuclear forces exercises.
Iskander-M SRBM of the Russian Armed Forces with a cruise missile.
Photo: russian Defense Ministry
The Russian Federation claims that the purpose of the exercises is to maintain the readiness of personnel and equipment in case of the use of tactical nuclear weapons "to unconditionally ensure the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Union State."