Pentagon chief: ‘Irresponsible’ for Russia to talk about potential nuclear escalation

Russia’s most recent threats of escalating its attack on Ukraine into a nuclear conflict are “unhelpful” and “irresponsible,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday.

“You’ve heard us say a number of times that that kind of rhetoric is very dangerous and unhelpful,” Austin told reporters following a meeting with military leaders from more than 40 countries at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

“Nobody wants to see a nuclear war happen. It’s a war where all sides lose, and so rattling sabers and … dangerous rhetoric is clearly unhelpful and something that we won’t engage it.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov a day earlier said that the threat of nuclear war “should not be underestimated,” and that “the danger is serious.”

The comments were a response to the U.S. and other NATO countries supplying billions of dollars in aid and weapons to Ukraine, which Lavrov called “pouring oil on the fire” in the conflict.

Moscow has frequently held the threat of nuclear weapons over NATO since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24.

In the days directly after the war began, Russian President Vladimir Putin directed his nuclear forces be placed on high alert after Moscow faced international condemnation and crippling financial penalties for the invasion.

Nations are taking the threats seriously, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week warning that there is a “possibility” that Putin will use nuclear or chemical weapons in the conflict.

U.S. officials have made similar warnings, including CIA Director William Burns, who said earlier this month that the U.S. cannot “take lightly” the possibility that Russia could use tactical nuclear weapons as it grows more desperate in its military attack.

“We’ve heard this rhetoric out of Russia,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told Brian Kilmeade of Fox News in a Tuesday interview. “It’s unhelpful, it’s not constructive, and quite frankly, it’s irresponsible for a nuclear power like Russia to be talking about even the potential of escalating this into the nuclear realm.”

Austin, meanwhile, said Tuesday that the U.S. and allies will continue to support Ukraine and “do everything within our power” to make sure the war “doesn’t spin out of control.”

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