Biden Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin dismissed warnings by the Russian Federation of a possible nuclear response to Ukraine launching US and UK-supplied long-range missiles into Russian territory.
Austin insisted on NBC Tuesday night that Russian President Vladimir Putin was bluffing about the use of nuclear weapons despite the fact he approved of a new nuclear weapons doctrine that justifies a nuclear response to any major attack on its territory, even with conventional weapons, by a non-nuclear country backed by a nuclear power.
“We’ve known for several weeks that they were revamping their policy on use of nuclear weapons. As I look at, you know, what they’re doing, and I — I — we watch their strategic forces, you know, very carefully, I don’t see a change in their strategic force posture,” Austin said.
Secretary Austin predicts Putin’s just bluffing about using nukes:
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) November 20, 2024
“As I look at, you know, what they’re doing, and I — I — we watch their strategic forces, you know, very carefully, I don’t see a change in their strategic force posture … But at this point, no, I — I don’t see… pic.twitter.com/OF5amFCjnp
“We’ll continue to remain vigilant in this regard. But at this point, no, I — I don’t see an indication that there’s an imminent intent to — to use nuclear weapons.”
This comes after, for the first time since the conflict began in Feb. 2022, Ukraine attacked Russia with long-range ATACM missiles supplied by the US on Tuesday, as well as UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles on Wednesday.
Theoretically, according to the new nuclear weapons policy signed by Putin, this kind of attack against Russia by Ukraine, a non-nuclear nation, using conventional weapons supplied by the US and UK, both nuclear powers, a nuclear response is considered to be appropriate.
In fact, Sergey Markov, a former adviser to Putin, warned Tuesday that these attacks by the West through its proxy Ukraine “is not a step towards nuclear war — it is a big jump to nuclear war, nuclear catastrophe.”
“We regard this as the start of a direct war by Britain, America and France against Russia, another nuclear power,” Markov said. “American rocket missiles against our territory. This is a clear escalation of the war.”
“I think [Joe] Biden, [French President Emmanuel] Macron and [UK Prime Minister Keir] Starmer want escalation which could lead to, from my understanding, in the worst scenario, the nuclear war happens before Christmas of this year,” Markov warned.
According to a declassified memo from the ODNI’s National Intelligence Council, Russia using a nuclear weapon in Ukraine would result in the collapse of the global economy, leading to food shortages and civilizational chaos.
This unprecedented escalation begs the question: given the threats previously mentioned, why would US and other Western leaders risk triggering nuclear war over the prospect of Ukraine losing a small piece of its territory to Russia?
Many experts have claimed this alarming geopolitical escalation is simply an attempt to “sabotage” President-elect Trump’s incoming administration and diplomatic efforts.
But according to Austin, there’s simply nothing to worry about.
Lloyd Austin, our Secretary of Defense. pic.twitter.com/abfD15X32g
— Michael Sebastian (@HonorAndDaring) November 18, 2024
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