With the war between Russia and Ukraine intensified in 2022, the United States reportedly pursued extensive efforts for the possibility of a nuclear strike by Moscow targeting Kyiv. The outreach and public statements from Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi helped avert a crisis, CNN report said.
This alarming scenario, if realized, would mark the first employment of nuclear weapons since the US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki nearly eighty years earlier, according to CNN, which cited two high-ranking administration officials as saying.
According to the report of CNN, the US sought to enlist the help of non-allies, in particular China and India, to discourage Russia from such an attack. “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,” CNN quoted a senior administration official as saying.
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“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,” a senior administration official told CNN.
India views Russia as a longstanding ally dating back to the Cold War era, with significant collaboration in defense, oil, nuclear energy, and space exploration. Despite the ongoing conflict and international condemnation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine since February 2022, India has refrained from voting against Russia at the United Nations or publicly criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Despite the resolution of the immediate crisis and Russia’s apparent military advantage as Ukraine faces ammunition shortages, many officials characterized those weeks as a foreboding glimpse into a new and alarming era where nuclear weapons have once again become a focal point of superpower rivalry.
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