The US says Putin is making non-existent threats to justify further aggression.
Washington:
The United States said on Sunday that President Vladimir Putin’s warning about nuclear forces represented a “completely unacceptable” escalation to the Ukraine invasion as it accused the Russian leader of being fabricating threats to justify “further aggression”.
“This is a pattern that we’ve seen from President Putin throughout this conflict, which is creating non-existent threats to justify further aggression,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC when asked about the announcement from Moscow.
At the Pentagon, a senior official called the move “escalating” but did not say whether the US nuclear forces would change their stance in response.
Speaking to journalists, the US defense official said the US had no reason to doubt Putin’s announcement was authentic, but there was no information on how it was done.
“We believe this is not only an unnecessary step for him, but also an escalation,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“It’s not necessary because Russia has never been threatened by the West, NATO and certainly not by Ukraine,” the official said.
“And escalate because it clearly has the potential to exert forces that, if miscalculated, could make things a lot more dangerous.”
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said she condemns Putin’s step in the strongest possible terms.
“It means that President Putin is continuing to escalate this war in a way that is completely unacceptable,” Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview on CBS.
Moscow has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal and a huge arsenal of ballistic missiles, which form the backbone of the country’s deterrent force.
Putin said he was putting Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert because, he said, Western countries were taking “unfriendly” steps towards his country following Russia’s invasion of Russia. Ukraine on Thursday.
The US defense official declined to say whether US nuclear forces, the world’s largest, had been put on higher alert.
“We are not talking about the specifics of our strategic deterrence posture,” the official said.
“I just want to tell you that we remain confident in our ability to defend ourselves and our allies and partners. And that includes the area of strategic deterrence.”
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