Blinken said in the interview that at one point the United States was “very concerned” that Putin was considering moving toward nuclear weapons. “Even if the probability of that happening has only increased from five to fifteen percent when it comes to nuclear weapons, there is nothing more serious… We have reason to believe that China contacted Russia and said, ‘Don’t do it,'” he said. Blinken.
According to Blinken, a similar situation could have occurred even if the US informed China that the Kremlin was planning to deploy nuclear weapons into space. As the reason why Putin was considering such drastic steps, he mentioned that the Russian leader is aware that he suffered a strategic defeat due to the conflict in Ukraine, regardless of the acquired territory. This is because he caused the enlargement and strengthening of NATO, to which Sweden and Finland joined in response, and most of its members now fulfill the set goal of contributing at least 2% of GDP per year to defense.
China continues to be one of Russia’s key allies, although it is also trying to publicly position itself as a peacemaker. According to Blinken, the team mainly tries to avoid becoming the target of large-scale sanctions, just like Russia.
In the interview, Blinken also defended the administration of outgoing President Joe Biden against criticism that it was too slow to provide weapons to the attacked country. According to him, Washington had to take into account Ukraine’s ability to control and maintain American systems before supplying them.
Ukraine is expanding its weapons production so that allies can buy from it in bulk
War in Ukraine
