WASHINGTON: The threat of Russia potentially using tactical or low-yield nuclear weapons in Ukraine cannot be taken lightly, but the CIA has not seen a lot of practical evidence reinforcing that concern, CIA Director William Burns said on Thursday.
In a speech at Georgia Tech, Burns referred to the“potential desperation” and military setbacks that RussianPresident Vladimir Putin and his government have suffered since moved forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
For those reasons, “none of us can take lightly the threatposed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons orlow-yield nuclear weapons,” Burns said.
That said, despite “rhetorical posturing” by the Kremlinabout putting the world’s largest nuclear arsenal on high alert,“We haven’t seen a lot of practical evidence of the kind ofdeployments or military dispositions that would reinforce thatconcern.”
Burns made his comments in response to a question fromformer U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, a leading arms control advocate, at the end of his first speech since taking the helm of the premier U.S. spy agency in March 2021.
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In a wide-ranging address, the former career U.S. diplomatsaid U.S. spy agencies began last fall collecting “disturbingand detailed” intelligence on a plan by Putin for a “major newinvasion” of Ukraine.
Putin has “stewed” in grievance, ambition and insecurity andsaw the “window was closing for shaping Ukraine’s orientation” away from the West, said Burns, who called the Russian leader an “apostle of payback.”
U.S. intelligence has been vital to Ukraine’s fight againstRussian forces, said Burns, whose diplomatic posts included one as U.S. ambassador to Moscow.
The “crimes” he said those forces committed in the Ukrainiantown of Bucha are “horrific.”
Russia, which has repeatedly denied targeting civilianssince the invasion, has called the accusations Russian forcesexecuted civilians in Bucha while they occupied the town a“monstrous forgery” aimed at denigrating the Russian army.
The Kremlin says it launched a “special military operation”to demilitarize and “liberate” Ukraine from nationalistextremists.