The United States was preparing for a nuclear war in Ukraine

CNN has revealed details of US preparations for a possible nuclear war in 2022, as tensions between Russia and Ukraine reached a climax, causing concern in Eastern Europe.

Washington was “preparing rigorously” for a possible Russian nuclear strike in Ukraine in late 2022; U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron opposed sending Western troops to Ukraine, including for training the Ukrainian military; and more. https://t.co/Lw9OyZbHSp

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 10, 2024

Biden administration officials were deeply concerned about the possibility of Russia using a tactical nuclear weapon against Ukraine. Preventive measures were quickly put in place in response to worrying intelligence, with the fear that Russia would regard the loss of territory, including Kherson, as an existential crisis. Had this proved to be the case, it would have marked the first nuclear strike since the Second World War, when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed.

Sensitive intelligence gathering by the US and its allies, combined with Ukraine’s advance into Russian-occupied territory in Kherson in late summer 2022, raised concerns. There were fears that Russia would perceive this loss as a threat to its territorial integrity, especially after Putin’s statements that Kherson was part of Russia. There were also fears of an escalation in the use of nuclear weapons.

The Biden administration did not base its assessment solely on hypothetical scenarios, but on concrete information pointing to an increased level of risk. In particular, a false story propagated by the Kremlin about a dirty bomb in Ukraine reportedly raised fears that Russia might use the story as a pretext to launch a nuclear strike against the country it was seeking to invade.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley contacted their Russian counterparts directly to express U.S. concerns.

The U.S. National Security Council held a series of meetings between late summer and fall 2022.

The purpose of these meetings was to devise contingency plans to prevent, deter or respond to indications of imminent nuclear strikes by Russia.

U.S. officials said they had never observed any attempts by Russia to mobilize nuclear forces, because of the difficulty for the U.S. government to detect such mobilization.