A key member of President Biden's administration has revealed what measures have been put in place to prevent nuclear war.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has said that the US has had private, high-level talks with leaders in Moscow following Russian President Vladimir Putin's threat to use nuclear weapons amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Speaking to Chuck Todd on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday (September 25), Sullivan explained that the Biden administration wants to prevent "rhetorical tit for tat" between Russia and the US.
"If Russia crosses this line, there will be catastrophic consequences for Russia. The United States will respond decisively," he said on the public affairs panel show per The Hill.
"Now, in private channels we have spelled out in greater detail exactly what that would mean, but we want to be able to have the credibility of speaking directly to senior leadership in Russia and laying out for them what the consequences would be without getting into a rhetorical tit for tat publicly," he continued.
Sullivan went on to say that they have been in contact with senior Kremlin officials "frequently" over the past few months, adding that the Biden administration has been "careful to protect the timing and the content".
He explained that keeping the channels secret has allowed communication with Russia to continue uninterrupted. The White House aide added that reminding Russia of the consequences of a nuclear attack has been an important method of deterring Putin from resorting to nuclear weapons.
"We have not wanted to indicate exactly what those channels look like because we want to be able to protect them so that we have the continuing ability to reach Russia and tell them in no uncertain terms, for example, what the consequences would be, and they would be catastrophic if Russia went down the dark road of nuclear weapons use," he said.
Putin renewed his threat to mobilize nuclear warheads last week, claiming Russia has "lots of weapons to reply" and adding: "This is not a bluff" per The Guardian.
The ultimatum comes as Russia's military campaign in Ukraine enters its ninth month, with Russian leaders forced to give the green light to the partial mobilization of reservists.
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