US To Consult Allies on "Contingency" of Using Nuclear Weapons

Jake Sullivan, the U.S. National Security Advisor, announced that President Joe Biden would travel to Europe on Wednesday for a meeting with the European Council, will hold a summit with NATO on Thursday, and Friday will be heading to Poland. The trip is intended to discuss the current military activity in Ukraine and to agree on whether nuclear weapons should be used to solve the conflict.

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"President Putin in the early days of the conflict raised the specter of the potential use of nuclear weapons. It is something that we do have to be concerned about. Based on our current analysis, we have not changed our nuclear posture to date. But we are constantly monitoring for that potential contingency and of course, we take it as seriously as one can possibly take it. We will be consulting with allies and partners on that potential contingency among a range of others and discussing what our potential responses are," disclosed the Advisor during a briefing on Tuesday.

Sullivan remarked that late last month, the Russian President ordered nuclear forces to be placed on heightened alert, as he cited that the comments made by British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss about possible NATO involvement in the Ukraine crisis were "aggressive statements." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov requested the U.S. on March 1 to remove all its nuclear weapons from the European continent and demanded the elimination of associated infrastructure.

Referring to the scheduled trip of President Biden to Europe, Sullivan appointed that the president has no intentions to pressure its allies for an immediate ban on Russian energy supplies; on the other hand, he seeks for a "joint response" intended to reduce Europe's dependence on Moscow. "He will work with allies on longer-term adjustments to NATO force posture on the eastern flank. He will announce joint action on enhancing European energy security and reducing Europe's dependence on Russian gas at long last," said the Advisor.

According to Sullivan, the U.S. and its allies will, in addition, "have the opportunity to coordinate on the next phase of military assistance to Ukraine," and will be imposing "further sanctions on Russia, and tightening the existing sanctions to crack down on evasion and ensure robust enforcement."

He noted that Biden was "not going to pressure" allies to follow suit, referring to White House's announcement earlier this month on the near-total ban on Russian energy imports into the U.S. "From his perspective, what we have achieved with our European partners in terms of financial sanctions, export controls and other measures to hit the Russian economy hard have had an unprecedented impact on a large economy on a scale we have never seen before," he continued to say.