In response to intelligence that Russian President Vladmir Putin was considering nuking Ukraine last spring, the Biden administration worked with China, India, and other nations to coordinate a message of opposition to deter Putin from pushing the button, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday.
Speaking to editor-in-chief of Atlantic Magazine Jeffrey Goldberg, Blinken explained that, in the spring of 2022, the State Department was concerned that Putin might act “irrationally” and had obtained intelligence out of Moscow suggesting the Russian president “would look to the use of tactical nuclear weapons” in Ukraine. The secretary said the impetus for Putin’s escalatory considerations was a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive….