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The Biden administration has been privately warning Russia against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine for months, the reported, citing US officials.
The warnings have been kept purposefully vague so that the Kremlin worries about how Washington might respond, the officials speaking on the condition of anonymity said.
Officials would not specify the content of the private messages or reveal who delivered them but said the State Department had been involved.
In a rare address to the nation last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons in an escalation of rhetoric over his war in Ukraine.
It was not clear whether the Biden administration sent any new private messages following the threat, The reported.
The private warnings echo the public statements made by President Joe Biden and his aides, which follow a nuclear deterrence world as “strategic ambiguity,” the report said.
Experts and the international community are divided about how seriously to take Putin’s nuclear threats.
