The United States has warned Russian President Vladimir Putin of the consequences his country would face for using a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a Bloomberg event on October 26, 2022.
“Very clearly and directly”
“We’ve communicated that very clearly and directly to the Russians, including President Putin,” Blinken said. He did not say how the message had been delivered. It was the first explicit statement by a US official that Putin himself had received the warning, CNN reported.
“Dirty bomb” claims
Blinken called Russian allegations that Ukraine was preparing to use a “dirty bomb” “another fabrication and something that is also the height of irresponsibility coming from a nuclear power.” He said Russia “has a track record of projecting” and that the United States had warned Moscow against using the claim as a pretext for escalation.
He said Washington was closely watching Kremlin nuclear rhetoric but had seen no reason to change its own nuclear posture.
Drills
On the same day, the Kremlin said Putin had overseen drills of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces, including practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles. Russia had notified the United States in advance of the annual exercise. US, British and French officials had rejected the dirty bomb allegations as transparently false.
Sources
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