The Us Has Privately Warned Russia Against Using Nuclear Weapons In Ukraine For Several Months

  The US has privately communicated to Russia in recent months that there will be consequences if Moscow chooses to use a nuclear weapon in the Ukraine war, according to US officials.   

  It was not immediately clear how and when the warnings were sent.  The State Department is involved, according to an official.  The Biden administration has also relied heavily on intelligence channels to communicate sensitive messages to Moscow throughout the build-up and prosecution of Russia’s war in Ukraine, including the recent negotiation of wrongfully detained Americans.   

  The warnings, first reported by the Washington Post, come as Russian President Vladimir Putin once again threatened to turn to nuclear weapons amid a series of embarrassing battlefield failures in Ukraine.  In a speech on Wednesday, he warned that “in the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to the defense of Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the weapons systems at our disposal.  This is not a bluff.”   

  US officials have stressed that this is not the first time Putin has threatened to turn to nuclear weapons since launching his invasion of Ukraine in February, although some analysts see the threat as more specific and escalating than the Russian president’s previous rhetoric.   

  The US has also tried to dissuade Russia from using a nuclear weapon in public warnings in the past and has made the issue the subject of remarks at the UN General Assembly this week in New York.  Foreign Secretary Anthony Blinken said Thursday that Russia’s “reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately.”   

  US President Joe Biden, appearing on CBS’s ’60 Minutes’ last week, said his message to Putin if he is considering using nuclear weapons was: ‘Don’t do it.  Don’t do it.  Do not.”   

  The US response would be “consequential” but would depend “on the extent of what they do,” Biden said, without elaborating.   

  So far, top CIA officials have said publicly that they have seen no signs that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons.  But some military analysts worry that Russia may seek to use a so-called tactical, or battlefield, nuclear weapon in response to its poor performance in Ukraine – a tactic sometimes called “escalation for de-escalation.”  Intelligence officials believe Putin would likely turn to that option only if he felt Russia or his regime were in existential danger, and it’s unclear whether he would feel losing the war in Ukraine would fit that description.