CIA Director William Burns speaks during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on global threats in Washington, DC, U.S. April 15, 2021. Tasos Katopodis/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
WASHINGTON, April 14 – The threat that Russia might use tactical or low-yield nuclear weapons in Ukraine cannot be taken lightly, but the CIA has not seen much practical evidence to substantiate those concerns, it said CIA Director William Burns on Thursday.
Burns’s largest public statement since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine underscored concerns that the largest attack on a European state since 1945 could escalate to the use of nuclear weapons.
Earlier Thursday, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian 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 at. Continue reading
Burns spoke at Georgia Tech of the “potential desperation” and setbacks faced by Putin, whose forces have suffered heavy casualties and been forced to withdraw from some parts of northern Ukraine after failing to capture Kyiv.
For these reasons, “None of us can take lightly the threat posed by potential resort to tactical or low-yield nuclear weapons,” Burns said.
Despite the Kremlin’s “rhetorical posturing” to place the world’s largest nuclear arsenal on high alert, “we have not seen much practical evidence of the type of operations or military dispositions that would heighten these concerns.”
Tactical and low-yield nuclear weapons refer to those intended for use on the battlefield, of which some experts estimate Russia has around 2,000, which can be supplied by air, sea and ground forces.
Burns’ comments came in response to a question from former US Senator Sam Nunn, a leading arms control advocate, at the end of the CIA chief’s first public speech since he took the helm of the top US spy agency in March 2021.
In a wide-ranging speech, the former US career diplomat said that US spy agencies began gathering “disturbing and detailed” information about a plan by Putin for a “major new invasion” of Ukraine last fall.
Burns said President Joe Biden dispatched him to Moscow in November “to convey directly to Putin and several of his closest advisers the depth of our concerns about his war planning and the implications for Russia” if they proceed.
“I was disturbed by what I heard,” he continued, saying that while Putin had not made a final decision, he appeared confident that his forces would “achieve a quick decisive victory at minimal cost.”
Putin believed Washington’s European allies were distracted by their own domestic politics and he had a “sanctions-proof” war chest of foreign exchange reserves, Burns said.
“Putin has been proven wrong on every one of those counts,” he said.
The Russian leader was “seething” with resentment, ambition and insecurity and apparently saw “the window on shaping Ukraine’s orientation” closing away from the West, said Burns, who called Putin an “apostle of redemption.”
US intelligence is vital to Ukraine’s fight against Russian forces, said Burns, whose diplomatic posts included one as US ambassador to Moscow.
The “crimes” committed by these forces in the Ukrainian city of Bucha are “appalling”.
Russia, which has repeatedly denied targeting civilians, has described allegations that its forces executed civilians in Bucha while occupying the city as a “monstrous fabrication” designed to denigrate the Russian army.
The Kremlin says it has launched a “military special operation” to demilitarize Ukraine and “rid” it of nationalist extremists.
In other remarks, Burns called China a formidable competitor trying to overtake the United States in everything from economic and military might to space and cyberspace.
China’s ambitions under its leader Xi Jinping are “quite ominous” and include the possibility of Beijing seeking control of Taiwan by military means, he said.
“The further we get into this decade, the greater that risk becomes,” he said.
Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Michael Martina; Editing by Howard Goller