CIA Director William Burns speaks during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on global threats in Washington, DC, April 15, 2021. Tasos Katopodis / Pool via REUTERS / File Photo
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WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) – The threat that Russia could potentially use tactical or low-yield nuclear weapons in Ukraine may not be taken lightly, but the CIA has not seen much practical evidence to increase that concern, CIA Director William Burns said. in Thursday .
Burns’s most extensive public comments since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 highlighted fears that the biggest attack on a European country since 1945 risks escalating to the use of nuclear weapons.
Earlier on Thursday, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, warned NATO that Moscow would deploy nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave in the heart of Europe if Sweden and Finland joined the Atlantic Alliance. Read more
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Burns spoke at Georgia Tech about “potential despair” and the failures of Putin, whose forces suffered heavy losses and were forced to withdraw from parts of northern Ukraine after failing to take Kyiv.
For these reasons, “none of us can take lightly the threat posed by the potential recourse to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons,” Burns said.
However, despite the Kremlin’s “rhetorical stance” on bringing the world’s largest nuclear arsenal on high alert, “we have not seen much practical evidence of the type of deployment or military dispositions that would heighten this concern.”
Tactical nuclear weapons and low-yield nuclear weapons refer to those intended for use on the battlefield, of which, according to some experts, Russia has about 2,000 that can be delivered by air, sea and land forces.
Burns’ comments came in response to a question from former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, a leading proponent of gun control, at the end of the first public speech by the CIA chief since taking over the helm of the main US spy agency in March 2021.
In a public address, the former US career diplomat said US spy agencies began collecting “disturbing and detailed” intelligence last fall on Putin’s plan for a “new major invasion” in Ukraine.
Burns said President Joe Biden sent him to Moscow in November, “to convey directly to Putin and several of his closest advisers the depth of our concerns about his planning for war and the consequences for Russia,” if they continue.
“I was worried by what I heard,” he continued, adding that although Putin had not made a final decision, he seemed convinced that his forces would “achieve a quick, decisive victory at minimal cost.”
Putin believed Washington’s European allies were distracted by its own domestic policies and had a “sanctions-resistant” military box with foreign exchange reserves, Burns said.
“Putin has been shown to be wrong on all these points,” he said.
The Russian leader “suffocated” in grievances, ambitions and insecurities, and clearly saw that “the window is closing to shape Ukraine’s orientation” far from the West, said Burns, who called Putin “an apostle of retribution.”
US intelligence is vital to Ukraine’s fight against Russian forces, said Burns, whose diplomatic posts included one as US ambassador to Moscow.
“Crimes”, according to him, these forces committed in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, are “horrifying.”
Russia, which has repeatedly denied attacking civilians, called the allegations that its forces executed civilians in Bucha while occupying the city a “monstrous forgery” aimed at tarnishing the Russian army.
The Kremlin says it has launched a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “liberate” Ukraine from nationalist extremists.
In other remarks, Burns called China a great competitor that seeks to overtake the United States in every field, from economic and military power to space and cyberspace.
China’s ambitions under its leader, Xi Jinping, are “quite threatening” and include the possibility of Beijing seeking control of Taiwan by military means, he said.
“The further we go in this decade, the greater the risk,” he said.
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Report by Jonathan Landai and Michael Martina; Edited by Howard Goller
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