The United States will destroy all Russian troops and equipment in Ukraine, as well as stop the Black Sea Fleet if Russian President Vladimir Putin decides to use tactical nuclear weapons. This was announced in an interview with ABC News by the former head of the CIA, retired Army General David Petreus. The statements of the American military are given by Moscow Times.
According to him, the answer to the nuclear escalation, which the deputy head of the Council of Ministers Dmitry Medvedev and the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov and which Putin himself repeatedly hinted at, will be given by the forces of NATO, led by the United States.
“We … will destroy all the conventional forces that we can see and identify on the battlefield in Ukraine and in Crimea, as well as all (Russian) ships in the Black Sea,” Petraius said.
Nuclear blow to Ukraine, which the Kremlin threatens to “protect” control over the annexed territories, according to Petreus, will not be considered as the basis of the fifth article of the NATO Charter, which launches the process of collective self -defense. Nevertheless, if the radiation from such a blow reaches the countries of the block, then this situation can be considered as an attack on a member of NATO.
The USA does not want to go to nuclear escalation, but it is necessary to “show that this cannot remain unanswered,” Petreus emphasized.
The very fact of the use of tactical nuclear weapons – a power comparable to a bomb dropped on Hiroshima – will “not change” the situation on the battlefield, where the Russian army suffers defeat, says Petraus.