The United States and its NATO allies must remain vigilant for signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin may use tactical nuclear weapons in an escalation of the “managed” war in Ukraine. This was announced Tuesday by Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.
Sherman issued the warning as she opened NATO’s annual arms control conference, which is taking place in North America for the first time this year. The first such conference was held in 2004.
“We were all watching and fearing that Vladimir Putin might use what he sees as non-strategic tactical nuclear weapons, or use some sort of demonstration effect to escalate, but as part of an escalation of controlled risk,” Sherman said. “It’s very important to keep an eye on it.”
The announcement by Putin, who said on March 25 that Russia was preparing to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, “is an attempt to use this threat in a manageable way,” Sherman said.
Tactical nuclear weapons are designed for success on the battlefield or for use against specific military targets.
Putin denied intending to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, where the situation has not changed for several months, with fierce fighting between the two sides.
Belarus, which borders Ukraine and NATO members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, became a springboard for part of the Russian military that invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who joined Sherman at the opening of the conference, described Putin’s plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus as part of a pattern of several decades of “dangerous and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric” that has escalated along with military violence. intensified in Ukraine.
The Alliance, he said, is “watching what it (Russia) is doing very closely.”
Sherman said the United States will continue to share intelligence with all NATO nations “so everyone knows … where we stand.”
Read the Ukraine War News Latest Today on The Eastern Herald.
