- The director of the organization, William Burns, said this Saturday that there is no evidence to suggest it.
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| CIA Director William Burns. |
CIA Director William Burns said on Saturday that there is no evidence that Russia will use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, although he warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin is increasingly determined to win the war.
"The intelligence community is not seeing practical evidence that points, at this point, to Russian plans to deploy or even potentially use tactical nuclear weapons," Burns said in a Washington debate organized by the Financial Times.
Known as tactical nuclear weapons are those that can be used at close range in missiles on the battlefield or that can be launched from aircraft and ships. They are different from strategic nuclear weapons, those that have pitted Moscow and Washington, the two largest nuclear powers, against each other for years.
Shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24, Putin alluded to the possibility of using his nuclear arsenal, and at the time, the CIA asked not to take that threat "lightly".
I think Putin is in a state of mind where he thinks he can't afford to lose
Nearly a month later, the CIA director still did not rule out Russia's use of nuclear weapons and called for the possibility to be taken seriously, but stressed that there is no evidence of imminent use.
Although there is no immediate threat, Burns expressed concern about the position of Putin, who in his opinion has entrenched himself and is redoubling his efforts to win the war.
"I think he (Putin) is in a state of mind where he thinks he can't afford to lose," said Burns, who was US ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008 and has spent much of his career studying how the Russian leader thinks.
On February 24, the Kremlin ordered the invasion of Ukraine and, since then, the war has left at least 3,193 dead while 12 million people have had to leave their homes, according to figures published this week by the United Nations, which warns that the number of dead and displaced is possibly much higher.