Vladimir Putin seriously considered unleashing nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war, U.S. intelligence suggested, prompting Joe Biden to threaten ‘catastrophic consequences’ if he did so, a bombshell new book reveals. Months after the invasion in 2022, the U.S. uncovered evidence of ‘highly sensitive, credible conversations inside the Kremlin’ that the Russian President could use nukes to avoid major battlefield losses, according to journalist Bob Woodward.
In his new book, War, the famed Watergate reporter describes the Biden administration increased the probability of Russia using nukes up from 5 to 10 per cent up to 50 per cent. National Security adviser Jake Sullivan reportedly stared ‘with dread’ at the chilling intelligence assessment, with Biden telling him to ‘get on the line with the Russians. Tell them what we will do in response.’
He said to use language that was threatening but not too strong, the book says. Biden also reached out to Putin directly in a message, warning of the ‘catastrophic consequences’ if Russia used nuclear weapons. Putin, his ministers and propagandists, have all frequently threatened the West with Russia’s nuclear arsenal. One of his cronies, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, recently urged Putin to obliterate ‘damned’ Britain by sinking it under the sea.
In a strong, new warning to the West late last month, the Russian dictator said any nation’s conventional attack on his country that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country. The threat was aimed at discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
Biden has held off on allowing Ukraine to hit military targets deeper inside Russia with U.S.-provided missiles over fears of escalating the war, even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleads for permission and Ukraine argues it is nothing more than sabre-rattling from Russia. In another heated conversation laid out in Woodward’s book, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confronted his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, in October 2022.
‘We know you are contemplating the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine,’ Austin said, according to Woodward. ‘Any use of nuclear weapons on any scale against anybody would be seen by the United States and the world as a world-changing event. There is no scale of nuclear weapons that we could overlook or that the world could overlook.’
As Shoigu listened, Austin pressed on, noting that the U.S. had not given Ukraine certain weapons and had restricted the use of some of those it had provided. He warned that those constraints would be reconsidered. He also noted that China, India, Turkey and Israel would isolate Russia if it used nuclear weapons. ‘I don’t take kindly to being threatened,’ Shoigu responded, according to Woodward’s book.
‘Mr Minister,’ Austin said. ‘I am the leader of the most powerful military in the history of the world. I don’t make threats.’ According to a U.S. official, Austin’s October 21, 2022, call to Shoigu was indeed to warn Russia against any use of nuclear weapons.
The official described the call as contentious, and confirmed there were intelligence reports at the time that referred to increased indications of Russia’s potential use of nuclear weapons and they triggered growing concerns within the administration. The official said leaders across the government were instructed to call their counterparts to deliver the same message.
Two days after the first call, Shoigu reportedly called Austin back and falsely claimed the Ukrainians were planning to use a ‘dirty bomb,’ which the U.S. believed the Kremlin was putting out as a pretext to deploy a nuclear weapon. ‘We don’t believe you,’ Austin said, according to Woodward. ‘We don’t see any indications of this, and the world will see through this… Don’t do it.’ ‘I understand,’ Shoigu is reported to have responded.
In another part of the book, Woodward describes U.S. General Mark Milley (pictured), then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asking his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, to state the conditions for a Russian use of nuclear weapons. Gerasimov reportedly responded that one of them involved ‘the right to use tactical nuclear weapons in the event of catastrophic battlefield loss.’
Milley is said to have hit back by saying ‘none of those conditions are going to obtain.’ U.S. intelligence reportedly pointed to a 50 per cent chance that Putin would use tactical nukes if Ukrainian forces surrounded 30,000 Russian troops in the southern city of Kherson.
Just months before, in the far northeast, Ukrainian troops had stunned the Russians by recapturing Kharkiv , Ukraine’s second-largest city, and were pivoting to liberate Kherson, strategically located on the Dnieper River not far from the Black Sea.
Want more stories like this from the Daily Mail? Hit the follow button above for more of the news you need.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk