Russia’s top commander in Ukraine floated using nuclear weapons to prevent Ukraine advancing towards Crimea in fall 2022, according to a New York Times report.

Newsweek cannot independently corroborate the information detailed in the report, and has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Why It Matters

Nuclear rhetoric has limned the more than three years of full-scale war in Ukraine, and the U.S. actions under President Joe Biden were often tempered by fears of escalating Europe’s largest land conflict since World War II.

Russian President Vladimir Putin put Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces on high alert as Moscow’s forces poured into Ukraine in early 2022, and the Kremlin’s veteran foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said a few months later that the risks of nuclear conflict had become “considerable.”

What To Know

General Sergei Surovikin, who briefly headed up Russia’s operations in Ukraine between October 2022 and January 2023, discussed using tactical nuclear weapons to head off Ukraine’s advance in the south towards Crimea, according to U.S. intelligence, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

Unlike strategic weapons, tactical nuclear weapons are designed for use on the battlefield or in what is known as a specific theater. They have a smaller yield, and are designed to be used against different targets than strategic nuclear weapons, which are limited under the New START Treaty.

U.S. estimates put Russia’s stockpile of tactical nuclear weapons at around 2,000 active warheads.

U.S. intelligence agencies had put the chance of Moscow using its nuclear weapons in Ukraine at somewhere between five and ten percent at the time, according to the Times report.

If Ukraine successfully steamed ahead with its offensive in the south, which could have endangered Russia’s grip on Crimea, this reportedly surged to 50 percent.

At the time, Kyiv’s forces were rolling back Russia’s grip on territory it had quickly taken during the initial weeks of its invasion, homing in on Ukraine’s northeast and south while Russia pressed down on the east.

From August 29, 2022, Kyiv launched a fresh push to shove Russian troops from Kherson city and more broadly back to the east bank of the Dnipro River.

By November, Moscow pulled back across the river, and Ukraine reclaimed Kherson City.

The broader Kherson region, along with neighboring Zaporizhzhia and the two Donetsk and Luhansk regions collectively known as the Donbas, were annexed by Russia in late September that year, although the Kremlin did not fully control these regions and this was not internationally recognized.

Russia had seized Crimea, the peninsula south of the Kherson region, in 2014. Kyiv had vowed to reclaim it.

If Ukraine had retaken the majority or all of Kherson, this would have jeopardized Russia’s “land corridor” of Moscow-held territory connecting Crimea with its forces in mainland Ukraine.

Surovikin was nicknamed General Armageddon, a reference to his brutality during Russian operations in Syria. He was replaced as Russia’s top commander in Ukraine in January 2023 by the Chief of the General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov.

Russian state media reported in August 2023 that Surovikin was fired as head of Russia’s aerospace forces. He had been notably absent from public view after Russian mercenaries with the Wagner group, headed by former Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, mutinied against the Kremlin in June.

What People Are Saying

General Valery Zaluzhnyi, formerly Ukraine’s top soldier who is now the country’s ambassador to the U.K., said in remarks published by Ukrainian media: “There is a direct threat of the use, under certain circumstances, of tactical nuclear weapons by the Russian Armed Forces.”

What Happens Next

Talks between Kyiv, Washington and Moscow are ongoing, with more slated to take place in Saudi Arabia in mid-April. While the new US leadership made some progress towards agreeing a partial ceasefire relating to energy infrastructure and Black Sea warfare, Donald Trump‘s recent remarks on Russia suggested there is still a considerable gap between the opposing sides.

Trump also revealed that he and Putin will speak again this week about Ukraine.