Will Russia use a tactical nuke in Ukraine?

[SamuelTheThird]

16. btw Woodward's book claims Putin was seriously considering using a nuke

Months into Russia's war in Ukraine, the United States had intelligence pointing to "highly sensitive, credible conversations inside the Kremlin" that President Vladimir Putin was seriously considering using nuclear weapons to avoid major battlefield losses, journalist Bob Woodward reported in his new book, "War."

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The US intelligence pointed to a 50% chance that Putin would use tactical nukes if Ukrainian forces surrounded 30,000 Russian troops in the southern city of Kherson, the book says. Just months before, in the far northeast, Ukrainian troops had stunned the Russians by recapturing Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, and were pivoting to liberate Kherson, strategically located on the Dnieper River not far from the Black Sea.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan stared "with dread" at the intelligence assessment − described as coming from the best sources and methods − in late September 2022, seven months after Russia's invasion, the book says. It caused alarm across the Biden administration, moving the chance of Russia using nukes up from 5% to 10% to now 50%.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/10/09/woodward-book-reveals-us-scrambled-to-urge-putin-not-to-use-nuclear-weapons-in-ukraine_6728668_4.html?srsltid=AfmBOordqcKTcDh_FUOfcX1-1FyNTYeoViPNPuFC4J4dhrFLKk0XOKBj

So things are getting more dire for him now