DM Monitoring
WASHINGTON: The United States does not believe there is a threat from Russia using nuclear weapons, despite a recent escalation in Moscow’s rhetoric, a top US defense official said on Friday.
“We continue to monitor their nuclear capabilities every day to the best of our ability and do not assess that there is a threat of the use of nuclear weapons and no threat to NATO territory,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that the West should not underestimate the heightened risks of nuclear conflict due to the war in Ukraine.
Russia said earlier this month that it plans to deploy newly tested Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of mounting nuclear strikes against the United States by June.
Western concern about the risk of nuclear war increased after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 with a speech in which he pointedly referred to Moscow’s nuclear forces and warned that any attempt to getting in Russia’s way “will lead to consequences never seen in history.”
Earlier this month, CIA Director William Burns said the threat of Russia potentially using low-powered or tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine could not be ignored, but that the CIA did not see much practical evidence bolstering that concern.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine left thousands dead or injured, reduced towns and cities to rubble and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad. Moscow calls its action a “special operation” to demilitarize the neighboring country.
Meanwhile, the Russian campaign to seize control of the Donbas region is behind schedule and moving slowly, a senior US defence official has said.
Fierce resistance from Ukrainian troops and caution after Russia’s failure to capture Kyiv has led to “slow and uneven progress” in the region, the Pentagon believes.
The official said Russian troops are wary of getting ahead of their supply lines, adding: “We believe that essentially what they’re doing is continuing to set conditions for a sustained and larger and longer offensive.”
The Pentagon believes the Russians “are at least several days behind where they wanted to be,” the official said.
Moscow has 92 battalion tactical groups in the east and south of Ukraine now, with more poised on the Russian side of the border, according to the US department of defence.
But those groups are not necessarily full-strength after significant setbacks in the first weeks of the invasion, the official said.
Ukraine has received an 88.5 million euro ($93.54m, £74.46m) grant from the World Bank, according to country’s finance ministry.
In a statement, the ministry says the grants will be used for social, humanitarian and healthcare needs as well as to support people who’ve been internally displaced in the country. It says it expects to receive an additional 495 million euros in grants from the World Bank Trust Fund.
