‘Real threat’: Putin almost used nukes in Ukraine: US intel

The US stared down Vladimir Putin as the Russian president came shockingly close to using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine amid major battlefield losses, a new book claims.

The United States stared down a nuclear threat from Russia in a stunning game of chicken in between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, according to a new book.

The US president’s national security team believed there was a 50 per cent chance that Mr Putin was about to use tactical nuclear weapons after suffering catastrophic battlefield losses in Ukraine.

The chilling revelation came from journalist Bob Woodward, of “Watergate” fame, who reported that US intelligence had the “deeply unnerving assessment” in September 2022 that Mr Putin was so desperate that his chances of using nukes shot up to 50/50 from about 5-10 per cent.

Ukraine had just reclaimed much of its territory in the Kharkiv counteroffensive that began on September 6, which led to an estimated tens of thousands of Russian troops killed, captured or deserted.

Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin meet during the US-Russia summit in Switzerland in June, 2021, six months before the two made nuclear threats over Ukraine. Picture: Getty Images

“On all channels, get on the line with the Russians,” Mr Biden instructed his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, according to an excerpt of the book published by CNN. “Tell them what we will do in response,” Mr Biden said, according to Mr Woodward.

The following month, in October 2022, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin threatened Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu that the US would reconsider “all the restraints” placed on Ukraine.

When Mr Shoigu responded that he didn’t “take kindly to being threatened,” Mr Austin replied: “I am the leader of the most powerful military in the history of the world. I don’t make threats.”

Two days later, Mr Shoigu told Mr Austin that Ukraine was planning to use a “dirty bomb”, which the US believed was a false story as a pretext to deploying a nuclear weapon.

“We don’t believe you,” Mr Austin said firmly in response, according to Woodward. “Don’t do it,” he added.

“I understand,” Shoigu replied.

Sergei Shoigu claimed Ukraine was going to use a “dirty bomb”, which the US said was cover for deploying tactical nuclear weapons. Picture: AFP

‘I don’t make threats’: US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin backed Russia down. Picture: AFP

Colin Kahl, a senior Pentagon official, later told Mr Woodward: “It was probably the most hair-raising moment of the whole war.”

It came less than a year after Mr Biden first confronted Mr Putin in December 2021 during a “hot 50-minute call” that became so heated Mr Putin “raised the risk of nuclear war in a threatening way.”

Mr Biden had laid out the US’s “astonishing intelligence coup” showing “conclusively” that Mr Putin had plans to invade Ukraine with 175,000 troops.

Mr Biden responded to Mr Putin’s threat by reminding the Russian president “it’s impossible to win” a nuclear war.

Despite confronting Mr Putin with the unsubtle threat of nuclear retaliation and the intelligence of his plan, which the US gathered in October 2021, Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky did not believe Vice President Kamala Harris’ warnings that Putin was about to invade. Picture: AFP

Mr Biden couldn’t believe it when first learning of Russia’s “dead serious” plan.

“This would be so crazy,” Mr Biden said of the plan. “Jesus Christ!” he added. “Now I’ve got to deal with Russia swallowing Ukraine?”

Not even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took the threat seriously. He dismissed the warnings several times, including during a meeting at the Munich Security Conference with Vice President Kamala Harris just days before the invasion.

Ms Harris told Mr Zelenskyy he needed to “start thinking about things like having a succession plan in place to run the country if you are captured or killed or cannot govern.”

Mr Woodward said the US’s intelligence of the invasion came from a human source inside the Kremlin, “the crown jewels of US intelligence”.

“It was as if they had secretly entered the enemy commander’s tent and were hunched over the maps, examining the number and movement of brigades and the entire planned sequence on the multifront invasion,” Mr Woodward wrote in the book, “War”.

Originally published as ‘Real threat’: Putin almost used nukes in Ukraine: US intel