The United States is keeping a close eye on the Zaporizhzhуа nuclear power plant captured by the Russian army and on Russian nuclear weapons. So far, there are no signs of a nuclear strike.
This was stated by John Kirby, coordinator of strategic communications at the US National Security Council, RBC-Ukraine reports with reference to the briefing.
"We have the ability to monitor radioactive activity near the plant, and we just haven't seen any signs that this threat is imminent, but we are monitoring it very, very closely," he said of the Zaporizhzhуа NPP.
Asked about plans to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, Kirby said Russia is a nuclear power and the United States monitors its nuclear capabilities as much as possible.
"And we have not seen any signs, other than loud rhetoric, we have not seen any signs that there is any intention to use nuclear weapons on the territory of Ukraine," he said.
Kirby assured that the US has not seen anything that would make us change "our own strategic posture of deterrence".
The threat of nuclear weapons use
We will remind you that Russia and Belarus, which are close allies since the war against Ukraine, agreed at the beginning of this year to place part of Moscow's tactical nuclear arsenal in Belarus. Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus for the first time.
US President Joe Biden said the threat of Vladimir Putin using tactical nuclear weapons is "real".
Zaporizhzhуа NPP
Russian troops seized Europe's largest Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in March 2022. The head of Ukraine's military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said that Russia had completed preparations to detonate the Zaporizhzhya NPP, the cooling pool and four power units were mined. He explained that without cooling, nuclear reactors can melt down in a period of ten hours to 14 days.
