The United States has become “over the months” “increasingly concerned” about the possibility of a potential nuclear strike from Russia in the context of the war in Ukraine, a White House adviser said on Wednesday. .
“We are monitoring this as best we can,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, a body attached to US President Joe Biden.
He was questioned, during an interview with the press, on an article by the New York Times that high-ranking Russian military personnel recently discussed when and how to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
The White House, however, has indicated that it has no indication of concrete preparations by Russia in this direction.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, for his part, considered it “irresponsible” that the Western media “deliberately inflated the subject of nuclear weapons”. Moscow has “not the slightest intention of taking part” in this debate, he continued.
“In the difficult and turbulent situation we are going through, which is the result of irresponsible and shameless actions aimed at undermining our national security, the main priority is to prevent any confrontation between nuclear powers,” the Russian ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. Foreign Affairs.
On Tuesday, however, the former Russian president and current number 2 of the Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, had once again mentioned nuclear weapons.
The Ukrainian will to take back all the occupied territories, including Crimea or Donbass, “threatens the existence of our state” and offers “a direct reason” to use “means of nuclear deterrence”, he had declared.
Faced with stubborn Ukrainian resistance, fueled by Western military aid, Vladimir Putin himself alluded to the atomic bomb in a televised speech on September 21.
He said he was ready to use “all means” in his arsenal against the West, which he accused of wanting to “destroy” Russia. “It’s not a bluff,” he assured.
Experts say such attacks would likely employ tactical nuclear weapons – smaller in explosive charge than a strategic nuclear weapon.
US President Joe Biden estimated about a month ago that the world was for the first time since the Cold War faced with the risk of an “Armageddon”, that is to say a nuclear apocalypse.