Top US officials have acknowledged that the country has privately warned Russia of "catastrophic" repercussions if it deploys nuclear weapons in its ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
As reported first by Daily Mail, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US has privately informed Russians "at very high levels" that the country "respond decisively" to any use of nuclear weapons.
This comes at the heels of Vladimir Putin's threatening the West with Armageddon and accusing NATO of planning attacks on Russia.
Catastrophic Effects
"Any use of nuclear weapons would have catastrophic effects for, of course, the country using them, but for many others as well," Blinken said in a statement with BS News program '60 Minutes' in New York.
There are growing worries that once Russia has completed what the West and Ukraine view as illegitimate referendums in regions of Ukraine under its control, it may try to intensify the conflict.
The voting, which finishes on Tuesday, Sept. 27, took place after hundreds of residents had evacuated. There have been pictures of armed Russian soldiers pressuring Ukrainians to vote by going door to door, according to the Daily Mail.
Russia is expected to announce the results in its favor, which may lead to the annexation of the area and give Moscow the pretext to defend it as its own territory under the Russian nuclear umbrella.
The national security advisor to President Joe Biden, Jake Sullivan, said that Russia would face severe consequences if it followed through on its threats to deploy nuclear weapons in the battle.
He claimed that Washington's message had been more explicit in private discussions with their Russian counterparts without going into further detail.
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Nuclear Blackmail
The two countries with the most nuclear weapons in the world are Russia and the United States. Russian military doctrine supports the employment of tactical nuclear weapons to drive back an opponent.
When asked about Putin's remarks during a news conference on Saturday at the UN, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov just stated that Moscow's doctrine is an "open document."
Putin's subliminal nuclear threat, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, maybe, in reality, add that Russian military activities against Ukrainian nuclear power stations are the first steps of Putin's nuclear blackmail.
No country has ever deployed nuclear weapons in battle but the United States. More than 200,000 people died when the US bombed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. A few days later, Imperial Japan bowed, ending World War II.
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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla