US warns of ‘new & troubling developments’ with Russia’s nuclear arsenal amid fears Putin could detonate nuke | The Sun
A US official has warned of "troubling developments" involving Russia's nuclear arsenal.
It comes amid growing fears Vladimir Putin could detonate a nuke as Moscow continues to wildly swing its nuclear sabre.
The tyrant is becoming increasingly frustrated as his troops have been hit with a series of disastrous defeats across the frontline in Ukraine.
There are concerns that if Vlad finds himself boxed into a corner, he could resort to using nuclear weapons.
Putin has repeatedly raised the spectre of using the weapons – and it's feared he could potentially be lining up a test in the Black Sea.
A senior US official has now warned of "new, troubling development involving Russia's nuclear arsenal", reports the New York Times.
The source declined to provide any further details.
Officials in America have reported no movement of any of Russia's 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons.
On Monday, a senior US military officer said there had been no indication Putin had decided to turn to unconventional weapons.
Nukes have not been used in a war since the US dropped two bombs on Japan to end World War 2.
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The use of such a weapon has to be signed off by Vlad himself before the orders are passed down the chain of command.
Moscow has red lines in its doctrine about when to use nukes – but they are softer than those in the West.
It is widely understood the current nuclear threats are referring specifically to smaller, tactical weapons designed for battlefield use rather than massive city-killing bombs.
Russia is thought to have around 2,000 nuclear weapons in its arsenal in the form of small-yield missiles, torpedoes and artillery shells.
Moscow's war doctrine is believed to be open to using nuclear weapons in a conventional conflict as an intimidation tactic – and use of such a weapon must be signed off personally by Putin.
Russia has been dangling the threat of nuclear weapons over Ukraine as its forces continue to be pushed back.
According to a senior Ukrainian official, Russian forces are digging in for the "heaviest of battles" in the strategic southern region of Kherson as the Kremlin prepares to defend the largest city under its control in Ukraine.
Putin's forces in the region have been driven back in recent weeks and risk being trapped on the west bank of the Dnipro River, where the provincial capital of Kherson has been in Russian hands since the early days of the invasion of Ukraine eight months ago.
Russian-installed authorities have been encouraging residents to flee to the east bank, but Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Zelensky, said there was no sign that Russian forces themselves were preparing to abandon the city.
Yuri Sobolevsky, a member of the ousted pro-Ukrainian Kherson regional council, said Russia-installed authorities were putting increasing pressure on Kherson residents to leave the city and head towards Russia.
In the northeast, Russian forces continued to try to seize the town of Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, Ukraine's General Staff said on Wednesday.
It comes as Russia told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that Ukraine was preparing to use a "dirty bomb", which has been dismissed by Western and Ukrainian officials as a false pretext for intensifying the war.
President Zelensky said Russia's allegation suggested Moscow was planning to use a tactical nuclear weapon and would seek to blame Kyiv.
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