Re: Jake Sullivan: US will act 'decisively' if Russia uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine

[Michele Fennelly White Chief Information Officer & Vice President-IT]

In article <smseti$o6b$4...@news.dns-netz.com>
<governo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Yeah, we'll send Kamala to fuck everyone to death.
>

America and its allies will act “decisively” if Russia uses a
tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, US national security adviser
Jake Sullivan said on Sunday, reaffirming the Joe Biden White
House’s previous response to mounting concerns that Vladimir
Putin’s threats are in increased danger of being realized.

“We have communicated directly, privately and at very high
levels to the Kremlin that any use of nuclear weapons will be
met with catastrophic consequences for Russia, that the US and
our allies will respond decisively, and we have been clear and
specific about what that will entail,” Sullivan told CBS’s Face
The Nation.

Sullivan said that the Russian leader Putin had been “waving
around the nuclear card at various points through this
conflict”, and it was a matter that Biden’s administration has
“to take deadly seriously because it is a matter of paramount
seriousness – the possible use of nuclear weapons for the first
time since the second world war”.

In a separate interview with CBS, Ukraine president Volodymyr
Zelenskiy said he was not certain that Putin was bluffing with
nuclear threats. “Maybe yesterday it was bluff. Now, it could be
a reality,” he said. “He wants to scare the whole world.”

The administration’s security chief said that Russia’s nuclear
threat against Ukraine, including extending its nuclear umbrella
over eastern parts of the country that are still being contested
seven months after its invasion, would not deflect the US and
its allies.

“We will continue to support Ukraine in its efforts to defend
its country and defend its democracy,” Sullivan said, pointing
to more than $15bn in weapons, including air defense systems,
hundreds of artillery pieces and rounds of artillery, that the
US has supplied to Ukraine.

He said that Moscow’s mobilization of troops was a “sham
referenda in the occupied regions” that would not deter the US.
“What Putin has done is not exactly a sign of strength or
confidence – frankly, it’s a sign that they’re struggling badly
on the Russian side,” Sullivan said.

But, Sullivan added, it is “too soon to make comprehensive
predictions” about a collapse of Russian forces.

“I think what we are seeing are signs of unbelievable struggle
among the Russians – you’ve got low morale, where the soldiers
don’t want to fight. And who can blame them because they want no
part of Putin’s war of conquest in their neighboring country?”

Sullivan continued: “Russia is struggling, but Russia still
remains a dangerous foe, and capable of great brutality.” He
alluded to mass burial sites containing hundreds of graves that
Ukrainian forces found after recapturing Izium from Russia and
said, “We continue to take that threat seriously.”

He added that the US, the International Atomic Agency and
Ukraine nuclear regulators are working together to ensure there
is no “melt-down” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in eastern
Ukraine.

The Russians, he said, had been “consistently implying that
there may be some kind of accident at this plant”.

Reactors at the plant, Sullivan said, had been put into “cold
storage” to “try to make sure there is no threat posed by a melt-
down or something else at the plant. But it’s something we all
have to keep a close eye on.”

Separately, Sullivan said US criticism of a crackdown on
mounting protests in Iran after the death in police custody of
22-year-old Mahsa Amini would not affect the administration’s
offer to lift sanctions on Iran as part of the effort to reach a
deal on nuclear enrichment.

“The fact that we are in negotiations with Iran on its nuclear
program is in no way impacting our willingness and our vehemence
in speaking out about what has been happening on the streets of
Iran,” he said.

Last week, Biden told the General Assembly of the United Nations
in New York that “we stand with the brave citizens and the brave
women of Iran who right now are demonstrating to secure their
basic rights”. The US president’s remarks came shortly after a
defiant speech by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

In his remarks on Sunday, Sullivan said the US had taken
“tangible steps” to sanction the morality police who caused the
death of Mahsa Amini.

“We’ve taken steps to make it easier for Iranians to be able to
get access to the internet and communications technologies to
talk to one another and talk to the world and we will do all
that we can to support the brave people, the brave women, of
Iran,” Sullivan said.

But Sullivan refused to be drawn out on whether the US would
change its policy on lifting sanctions in exchange for a nuclear
deal in light of the protests.

“We’re talking about diplomacy to prevent Iran from ever getting
a nuclear weapon,” he said. “If we … succeed …, the world,
America and its allies will be safer.”

But the pursuit of a nuclear deal, Sullivan said, “would not
stop us in any way from pushing back and speaking out on Iran’s
brutal repression of its citizens and its women. We can and will
do both.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/25/us-russia-
ukraine-war-nuclear-weapons-jake-sullivan