Russia has repeatedly suggested that if Nato takes it too far – or intervenes directly with the war – it will not hesitate to press the nuclear button.“He’s very good at sowing fear within our societies, really listening to what we are afraid of, and giving you the fears that you have.”“It is a trap, a trap of self-deterrence,” the Estonian politician said. “Because if we are afraid, then we start to self-deter – and this is what Putin wants.
“We also have to think what Putin is afraid of – and he’s actually afraid of going to war with Nato, so he doesn’t want that.’But it is, to understand the messages that he is giving out, so that we would be afraid and refrain from the decisions that we would otherwise make.”for nuclear war – and that if the US sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a serious escalation of the conflict.
However, the White House has said in the past that this is just Putin’s “nuclear saber-rattling” and that there is no evidence Russia is looking to use nuclear weapons imminently.