The US has warned Russia, both publicly and in private, that the consequences of using nuclear weapons would be “catastrophic”. “We have made it very clear, publicly and privately, to the Russians to stop talking about nuclear weapons,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes aired on Sunday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had indirectly threatened the use of nuclear weapons when he announced the partial mobilization of reservists in a televised speech on Wednesday. Russia will use all “available means” to protect its territory, Putin said. “It’s not a bluff.” “Those who are trying to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the tide can also turn in their direction,” Putin said.
Blinken said in the TV interview on the sidelines of the UN general debate in New York that it was “very important that Moscow hears from us and is told that the consequences would be appalling. And we made that very clear,” said Blinken. Any use of nuclear weapons “would obviously have catastrophic consequences for the country using them, but also for many others.”
Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor to US President Joe Biden, said in another interview shortly beforehand that the US had warned Russia “at a very high level” of the “catastrophic consequences” of using nuclear weapons. The United States and its allies would “resolutely respond,” Sullivan told CBS’s Face the Nation. “We made it clear what that would mean,” Sullivan said.
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