New York – “To be clear, who decides is one. There are no controls on Putin. As he made the irresponsible decision to invade Ukraine, he could take another one. Right now, however, I see nothing that makes me believe that has already done so. ” The Kremlin chief’s comment on nuclear threats, which US Defense Secretary Austin made yesterday during an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, is very reminiscent of Washington’s narrative on the eve of the invasion: Moscow is deploying troops at the border to attack Kiev, but the order has not yet been issued. The hope was that it would never happen, but in February the attack was then triggered. Therefore the Pentagon monitors the situation, to intercept any movement that could presage the use of nuclear weapons, while behind the scenes it activates all available channels to avoid it.
Austin revealed that he had in the past urged his Russian colleague Sergej Shoigu, in private, “not to take this path and conduct this kind of irresponsible behavior”. He hasn’t spoken to him lately, but confirmed that “other members of the US government leadership have been broadcasting similar messages to Russia recently.” He was certainly referring to National Security Advisor Sullivan, who just a couple of days ago said he warned Moscow of the “catastrophic consequences” of using nuclear weapons. Yesterday then the NATO secretary Stoltenberg repeated to the NBC that “any use of nuclear weapons will have serious answers for Russia”.
The Pope: “Absurd to have returned under the atomic threat. In the name of God, peace!”. And he appeals to Putin and Zelenky to negotiate
by Iacopo Scaramuzzi
It is likely that US intelligence, if it intercepted signals of the preparation of a nuclear attack, would reveal them to the world, as it did with the massing of troops before the invasion of Ukraine. There could be a direct appeal from Biden, public or private as at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, even if he is unlikely to make the first move to open negotiations, as it would be seen as giving in to Putin’s blackmail. Austin however condemned the “illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory” and called the threats to use nuclear weapons “an irresponsible statement. This nuclear saber rattle is not the kind of thing we would expect to hear from leaders of large countries with nuclear capabilities. “. As for the ongoing counter-offensive, “we can expect the Ukrainians to continue to move forward and try to take back all the territory within their sovereign borders. We will continue to support them.” The head of the Pentagon, on the other hand, said he did not see “an imminent invasion” of Taiwan by China, and hoped for the relaunch of communications with his colleague Wei Fenghe, also because when it became clear that Putin is preparing the nuclear attack , Biden would also point to an intervention by Xi to dissuade him.
Putin’s former ghostwriter: “The atomic bomb is a last act. It could suffer a coup”
by our correspondent Rosalba Castelletti
The New York Times wrote that the attack does not seem imminent, although Israeli sources report the unusual movement of TU 160 and TU 95 bombers to the Olenya base on the Kola peninsula, equipped with nuclear warheads. Putin has about 2,000 tactical warheads that he could use, demonstratively in some uninhabited area of the Black Sea, or on a Ukrainian military base. The answer would be conventional, probably launched again from Kiev to avoid a direct confrontation with the US and NATO, hitting the structures used for the launch in a devastating way. Moscow would then be completely excluded from the world financial and economic system.