The Russian threats of nuclear weapons were taken quite seriously by the Biden administration. It is likely that China deterred Putin from using them against Ukraine.
This was revealed in an interview with the Financial Times by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
According to him, Washington was "very concerned" about the Russian threats, as American intelligence suggested that Putin had at least "considered" the option of using nuclear weapons against Ukraine.
"Even when the probability rises from 5 to 15 percent regarding nuclear weapons, there is nothing more serious," Blinken noted.
Although the war in Ukraine has become yet another stumbling block in U.S.-China relations, the American diplomat stated that the nuclear issue was one of the few areas where Beijing may have assisted Washington.
"We have reason to believe that China reached out to Russia and said, 'Don't go there,'" Blinken said.
He added that this could have happened at the moment when the U.S. informed China about Putin's plans to deploy nuclear weapons in space.
Background. Earlier, Mind reported that one in three Russians considers a nuclear strike on Ukraine justified, according to a survey by the Levada Center, a Russian independent sociological organization.