The CIA, the main American intelligence agency, sees no indication that Russia is preparing to use tactical nuclear weapons in the conflict in Ukraine, its director William Burns said on Saturday.
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“We do not see at this stage, as an intelligence service, any concrete evidence that Russia is preparing the deployment or even the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons,” he told a conference. organized by the Financial Times newspaper.
“Given the warmongering statements that (…) we have heard from the Russian leadership, we cannot take these possibilities lightly,” he added, noting that his agency remained “very focused” on this issue.
Russia had placed its deterrent forces, including nuclear weapons, on high alert soon after the start of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Vladimir Putin also issued thinly veiled threats, hinting that he was ready to deploy these tactical nuclear weapons.
The Russian president has promised a “rapid and lightning” response in the event of external intervention in the conflict.
Russia has many tactical nuclear weapons, less powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, in accordance with its “escalation-de-escalation” doctrine which would consist of first using a low-power nuclear weapon to retake the advantage in the event of a conventional conflict with the West.