“Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks they have faced militarily to date, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a possible resort to tactical or low-yield nuclear weapons, Burns said, answering questions after a speech in Atlanta.
Prominent voices in Russian state media have recently made increasingly incendiary statements calling for more brutality in battles that have already sparked calls for war crimes investigations by Russian troops.
Much remained unclear about Russia’s misadventure in the western Black Sea, where an explosion on Thursday morning — Wednesday night in the United States — and subsequent fire forced many of the Moskva’s roughly 500 crew to abandon ship. Nothing was said about victims. Ukraine said it hit and sunk the ship with two Neptune missiles.
The Russian Defense Ministry initially said its sailors had managed to put out the fire and the Moskva, which was commissioned in 1983, remained afloat. But hours later, the ship sank while being towed to port in a storm.
Western defense officials said they couldn’t be sure what caused the explosion aboard the 12,000-ton ship. Three US officials informed of the incident said all indications were that it had been hit by missiles. The officials warned that early reports of the battlefield may change at times, but expressed deep skepticism about Russia’s report of an accidental fire.
Ukraine has emphasized the need for coastal defense weapons and the US announced this week it would send more. Pentagon officials said other Russian ships were further from Ukraine’s coastline, believing the missile strike claim.
“It will have an impact on their naval capabilities, especially in the short term,” but the long-term picture is unclear, said Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby, a former Navy Rear Admiral.
