Russian officials alleged Ukraine would build and detonate a dirty bomb against Russian forces and then blame the attack on Russia.
Western intelligence agencies had received information that there were now communications among Russian officials explicitly discussing a nuclear strike.
“It’s never a cut-and-dry, black-and-white assessment,” the first senior administration official told me.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken communicated US concerns “very directly” with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, according to senior administration officials.
“We conducted a number of quiet conversations with core allies to go through our thinking,” the first senior administration official told me.
Persons:
CNN —, Biden, Powers, “, ” “, Chris McGrath, Vladimir Putin, Sergei Shoigu, “ It’s, NurPhoto, Antony Blinken, Sergey Lavrov, Mark Milley, General Valery Gerasimov, Joe Biden, Bill Burns, Sergey Naryshkin, Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi, Alexandr Demyanchuk, ”, …
Organizations:
CNN, US, National Security Council, Kherson City, “, UN, United Nations, Russian, Russian Armed Forces, CIA, Indian, Shanghai Cooperation Organization
Locations:
Russia, Ukraine, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, “, Russian, Kherson, Ukrainian, France, Turkey, ”, Kyiv, India, China, Samarkand