According to CNN, which cited two senior administration officials, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict raged in 2022, the US began “preparing rigorously” for a potential nuclear strike by Moscow against Kyiv. This would have been the first nuclear attack since the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki nearly eighty years earlier. According to the report, efforts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other nations were crucial in preventing the disaster.
According to the officials, the Biden administration was particularly worried that Russia might employ a nuclear bomb for military purposes.
In light of these concerns, the US attempted to persuade non-allies, such as India, to assist in discouraging Russia from launching an assault, according to CNN. The senior administration official stated, “One of the things we did was not only message them directly but strongly urge, press, and encourage other countries, to whom they might be more attentive, to do the same thing.”
According to US authorities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s and others’ outreach and public remarks prevented a crisis. CNN quoted a senior administration official as saying, “I think we believe showing the international community the concern about this, particularly the concern from key countries for Russia and the Global South, was also a helpful, persuasive factor and showed them what the cost of all this could be.”
The senior administration official continued, “I think the knowledge that we know—China weighed in, India weighed in, and others weighed in—may have had some effect on their thinking.” “I think that’s our assessment, but I can’t demonstrate this positively.”
India has consistently called for a peaceful settlement to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and denounced the slaughter of civilians in that conflict.
During the SCO meeting in Uzbekistan last year, Prime Minister Modi made a significant declaration to President Putin, telling him that “this is not the era of war.” Even during India’s chairmanship, the comment was made to the G20 communiqué.
To establish backup plans “In the event of either a very clear indication that they were about to do something, attack with a nuclear weapon, or if they just did, how we would respond, how we would try to preempt it or deter it,” a senior administration official said that the National Security Council called a series of meetings during this time frame, which runs from late summer to fall 2022.
Remarkably, Russian soldiers in Ukraine were likewise experiencing a “devastating period” in the late summer of 2022. Ukrainian forces were encroaching on Russian-occupied Kherson, the southern city that had been Russia’s greatest prize ever since the invasion.
Entire Russian troops were in danger of being surrounded as these Ukrainian soldiers advanced. According to CNN, there was a belief among the administration that a loss this severe may serve as a “potential trigger” for the use of nuclear weapons.
Additionally, US officials were concerned that Russia might be planning to use the recent “false flag story” about a dirty bomb in Ukraine as a pretext for a nuclear strike. This was supposedly the case at the same time.
The Russian minister of defence, Sergei Shoigu, called defence officials in the US, UK, France, and Turkey many times in October 2022, informing them that the Kremlin was “concerned about possible provocations by Kyiv involving the use of a dirty bomb.”
However, it is important to remember that the US never received any evidence suggesting Russia was preparing to use its nuclear weapons to launch such an assault, according to CNN.
A senior administration official stated, “We placed a high priority on tracking and had some ability to track the movements of its nuclear forces.” “And we never saw any signs of the kinds of actions we would have expected them to take if they were moving towards the use of nuclear weapons at any point.”
