The threat of russia's use of nuclear weapons has risen to the level of the Cold War – CNN

What happened? The United States sees no sign that russia has taken any steps to prepare nuclear weapons for use during the war. However, several sources say that the US officials are more concerned about the threat of Russia using them than at any time since the Cold War.

Source. This was reported by CNN, with references to many defense officials.

Details. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is being briefed two or three times a week by the high-ranking US general who is in charge of the US nuclear weapons and defenses.

It is stated that it is still unlikely russian president vladimir putin would use any kind of nuclear weapon and one of the sources estimates the chances of use at around 1%.

Monitoring of any possible nuclear activity has always been a priority for the Pentagon, but urgency of doing this increased shortly after russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, when putin put the country's deterrent forces, including moscow's nuclear weapons, on high alert.

The US officials emphasize that Austin and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley would be quickly briefed if there are any sudden developments in between scheduled meetings.

Previously. Earlier russian foreign minister sergey lavrov, when being asked whether russia would use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, said that “at this stage we are considering the option of only conventional weapons”.