India Helped Prevent Russian Nuclear Strike In Ukraine, Suggests Report

India played a crucial role in averting a major man-made crisis in 2022 by convincing Russia to not use nuclear weapons in embattled Ukraine, suggests a report by US-based media giant CNN citing senior US officials.

The speculations around Russia contemplating a nuclear strike on the battlefield reportedly arose in Washington in late 2022 following a string of developments, analysis, and collection of highly sensitive intelligence.

As a result, the US government began “preparing rigorously” for a potential use of tactical nuclear warhead inside war-torn Ukraine, the officials told CNN. The administration of US President Joe Biden grew concerned about Russia resorting to a nuclear strike around the time when Ukraine recaptured the city of Kherson as part of its counteroffensive in November 2022.

uccess Of Ukrainian Counteroffensive

The Biden administration perceived the Ukrainian advance on Kherson — which was captured by Russian forces in the initial phase of the ongoing war — as a “potential trigger” for the use of nuclear weapons by the Kremlin in the face of continued losses incurred by its military in Ukraine during the period. “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 senior US official was quoted as saying by CNN.

“In Kherson, at that time, there were increasing signs that Russian lines could collapse. Tens of thousands of Russian troops were potentially vulnerable,” the official said further. Washington was concerned by the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin was probably viewing the loss of ground by Russian forces inside Ukraine as a direct threat to him and the Russian state as months ago Moscow had unilaterally annexed five Ukrainian oblasts, including Kherson, by means of a controversial referendum.

Moscow’s ‘Dirty Bomb’ Theory

During the same period, the Kremlin, as well as its purported propaganda machinery, began floating the theory of Ukraine preparing to use a “dirty bomb”- a conventional explosive containing radioactive material — against Russian forces in Ukraine. Western officials and analysts were convinced that Russia’s allegations against Ukraine were laying the ground for Russia to carry out the detonation of a “dirty bomb” on the battlefield and pin the blame on Kyiv in a ‘false flag’ operation.

Washington feared that Moscow could use the theory as cover for a Russian nuclear attack, CNN said in its report. In October 2022, Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, held a series of telephonic discussions with officials in the US, the UK, France and Turkey, telling them that Moscow was “concerned about possible provocations by Kyiv involving the use of a dirty bomb”.

India, China Helped Avert Crisis

As per the two officials cited by CNN, the US reached out to non-allies like India and China, seeking their help in defusing the situation developing against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine unbeknownst to the world. They said that outreach efforts and public statements by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping helped avert 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 said, as per CNN. “I think the fact that we know China weighed in, India weighed in, others weighed in, may have had some effect on their thinking. I can’t demonstrate this positively, but I think that’s our assessment,” they added.

“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 first official said. Notably, in 2023, PM Modi told Putin that “this is not the era of war”, on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Uzbekistan. The statement even made to the G20 communique under the presidency of India.

(With inputs from agencies)