India Contributed to Preventing Nuclear Strike-
According to a CNN report quoting senior US officials, India was instrumental in preventing a significant man-made crisis in 2022 by persuading Russia not to use nuclear weapons in beleaguered Ukraine. After a series of events, analyses, and the gathering of extremely sensitive intelligence, rumors that Russia was considering launching a nuclear attack on American soil are said to have started to circulate in Washington in late 2022.
Image - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Credit - ANI
According to a CNN article citing senior US sources, India
was instrumental in persuading Russia not to deploy nuclear weapons in
beleaguered Ukraine in 2022, thereby preventing a catastrophic man-made
catastrophe. After a series of events, analyses, and the gathering of extremely
sensitive intelligence, rumors that Russia was considering launching a nuclear
attack on American soil are said to have started to circulate in Washington in
late 2022.
Consequently, the individuals said CNN, the US government started
"preparing rigorously" for the possibility of using a tactical
nuclear bomb inside war-torn Ukraine. As Ukraine retook Kherson as part of its
counteroffensive in November 2022, the administration of US President Joe Biden
began to express concerns about Russia launching a nuclear attack.
The Ukrainian Counteroffensive's
Success
Given the ongoing losses suffered by Russia's military in Ukraine, the Biden
administration saw the Ukrainian advance on Kherson, which was taken over by
Russian forces early in the conflict, as a "potential trigger" for
the use of nuclear weapons by the Kremlin. "If significant numbers of
Russian forces were overrun — if their lives were shattered as such — that
was a sort of precursor to a potential threat directly to Russian territory or
the Russian state," a top US official was reported as saying by CNN at the
time.
"At that time, there were further indications in
Kherson that the Russian lines may break. There was a chance that tens of
thousands of Russian soldiers were in danger "the official continued.
Since Moscow had annexed five Ukrainian oblasts, including Kherson, through a
contentious referendum months prior, Washington was concerned that Russian
President Vladimir Putin was likely seeing the Russian military's retreat
inside Ukraine as a direct threat to him and the Russian state.
'Dirty Bomb' Theory
from Moscow
Around the same time, rumors circulated by the Kremlin and its alleged
propaganda apparatus that Ukraine was getting ready to use a "dirty
bomb"—a conventional explosive carrying radioactive material—against
Russian forces stationed in the country. The belief held by Western officials
and analysts was that Russia's accusations against Ukraine were intended to set
the stage for Russia to detonate a "dirty bomb" on the battlefield
and then use a "false flag" operation to place the blame on Kyiv.
According to CNN, Washington was concerned that Moscow may
exploit the notion as justification for a nuclear strike. Over the phone in
October 2022, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu expressed Moscow's
"concerned about possible provocations by Kyiv involving the use of a
dirty bomb" to representatives from the US, UK, France, and Turkey.
China & India Contribute
in Avoiding Crisis
According to the two sources that CNN quoted, the US contacted non-allies like
China and India, asking for their assistance in defusing the situation that was
emerging against the backdrop of the covert war in Ukraine. They said that
public remarks and outreach initiatives by Chinese President Xi Jinping and
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi prevented a nuclear crisis.
"One of the things we did was not only message them directly,
but strongly urge, press, encourage other countries, to whom they might be more
attentive, to do the same thing," a second US official told CNN. "I
believe that their perspective may have been influenced in some way by the
knowledge that China, India, and other countries have contributed. Though I am
unable to provide evidence to support it, I believe that is our
conclusion," they continued.
"I think we believe showing the international community
the concern about this, particularly the concern from key countries for Russia
and the Global South, was also a helpful, persuasive factor and showed them
what the cost of all this could be," the initial official stated.
Remarkably, PM Modi informed Putin in 2023 that "this is not the era of
war" as the SCO meeting was taking place in Uzbekistan. Even India, as the
G20 president, made a statement to that effect.
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