President Biden delivered a chilling message to a group of liberal New York Democrats at a townhouse owned by businessman James Murdoch on October 6, 2022. The intercepted communications he had been briefed about suggested that Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s threats to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine were escalating into an operational plan.
The gravity of the situation was not lost on the attendees as President Biden warned of the direct threat of a nuclear weapon being used for the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis. The intercepted communications revealed discussions within the Russian military about reaching into the nuclear arsenal, with one senior Russian military commander explicitly discussing the logistics of detonating a weapon on the battlefield.
While there was no evidence of weapons being moved at the time, the CIA warned that the likelihood of nuclear use could rise to 50 percent or higher under certain scenarios. The fear of a nuclear exchange loomed large, with preparations being made for a potential U.S. reaction.
As the crisis passed and Russia gained an advantage on the battlefield, President Putin made new nuclear threats in late February, warning of the use of nuclear weapons if NATO countries intervened in the conflict. The White House was deeply concerned, with task forces meeting to map out a nonnuclear response to any potential nuclear attack.
Efforts were made to deter Russia from using nuclear weapons, with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and other officials reaching out to their Russian counterparts. A meeting between CIA Director William J. Burns and Russian intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin aimed to convey the consequences of using a nuclear weapon.
The tense standoff highlighted the return of nuclear weapons to the center of superpower competition, with the specter of a nuclear exchange once again haunting the world stage. The events of October 2022 served as a stark reminder of the terrifying new era in which nuclear weapons were back in play, threatening the stability of global security.
