Top US intelligence official warns the Kremlin could use nuclear weapons if Putin thought Nato would intervene in Ukraine
The head of America’s national intelligence organisation has warned Russian President Vladimir Putin may use nuclear weapons.
Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate the Kremlin may take the drastic step to avoid getting bogged down in longer war over Ukraine.
She said Russia will become “more unpredictable and escalatory” as it move into the next stage of the war, but America did not see an “imminent” threat of nuclear weapons being used.
According to the Times, she said if Putin believed Nato was “either intervening or about to intervene” in the context of losing the war, he may resort to the extreme measure.
“But that there are a lot of things that he would do in the context of escalation before he would get to a nuclear weapon”.
“And also that he would be likely to engage in some signalling beyond what he’s done thus far before doing so.”