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Vladimir Putin 'close to launching nukes,' UK and US hold crisis meetings

UK Defence Secretary John Healey said Trump understood that countries must stay strong to keep their security.

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In October 2022, the UK feared Russia might use nuclear weapons on Ukraine. Prime Minister Liz Truss and the government prepared for fallout risks across Europe.

In October 2022, the world was on edge as tensions between Russia and Ukraine grew. Vladimir Putin, the leader of Russia, was said to be thinking about using nuclear weapons on Ukraine. 

This made the UK very worried, as the fallout from such an attack could spread to other countries, including Britain.

The US government had information showing there was a 50% chance that Russia might use a small nuclear weapon in Ukraine. Another possibility was that Russia could test a bigger bomb over the Black Sea. 

This information caused panic in the UK. Officials were scared that radiation from a nuclear explosion could travel across Europe, reaching Britain.

The UK’s emergency planners were especially concerned about the wind. If the wind blew in the right direction, dangerous fallout could travel 1,700 miles to Britain. 

To prepare for this, British officials spent hours studying weather maps and satellite pictures. Prime Minister Liz Truss, who was at the end of her time in office, spent a lot of time focusing on this problem. She worried that the wind could bring the dangerous radiation to the UK.

The UK government’s actions during this time are talked about in a new book called Out of the Blue. The book shows how seriously the government took the nuclear threat and how they watched every detail closely.

At the same time, Ben Wallace, the UK’s Defence Secretary, flew to Washington, D.C. on October 18, 2022, to meet with US officials. He went there to talk about the growing nuclear threat. 

US President Joe Biden had also warned that there was a real risk of nuclear war. He even said it reminded him of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, a time when the world came close to nuclear war.

This situation also raised questions about how the next US president, including Donald Trump, might handle the crisis. Trump had said that the war in Ukraine was costing too much money and had made some critical comments about Ukraine’s president, Zelensky. 

UK Defence Secretary John Healey said Trump understood that countries must stay strong to keep their security. Healey also said he was confident the US would continue to support Ukraine, even if Trump won again.

Healey also wanted to reassure people that the UK would keep supporting Ukraine, no matter who was in charge of the US. 

He said that the US and the UK were two of the strongest countries standing by Ukraine. Healey pointed out that the US had always supported NATO, even when Trump was president before.

The UK was also ready to give more help to Ukraine. There were reports that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was thinking about letting Ukraine use Storm Shadow missiles to strike inside Russia. These plans were part of a larger effort to help Ukraine deal with Russia’s growing power.

In the end, Healey made it clear that the UK understood the stress Ukraine was facing and was ready to offer help. He said both the UK and the US would continue to back Ukraine as it faced the Russian threat.

 

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