The US has put together a Tiger Team – a group of national security officials to help US plan scenarios along with its allies – to respond to any nuclear, chemical or biological threat posed by Russian president Vladimir Putin, news agency the New York Times (NYT) said.
The Tiger Team will also examine responses if the war on Ukraine spills over and reaches NATO territories to attack convoys bringing aid and weapons to Ukraine, people familiar with the developments told the NYT. Tiger Team is meeting thrice every week after being set up on February 28.
The team is also assessing options if Russia chooses to extend the war to Moldova and Georgia. It will also help European allies to prepare for the influx of refugees.
These developments will also be discussed with the leaders of the 29 other NATO nations when US president Joe Biden arrives in Brussels to hold a closer door meeting. The NYT report said that the meeting will be held without aides and cellphones with the leaders speaking directly to each other to find means to mitigate the crisis.
The NATO and the White House continue to ratchet up the rhetoric that Russia will turn to using biological, chemical and nuclear weapons as the war on Ukraine moves towards being a stalemate.
Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan put together the Tiger Team four days after Russia declared a ‘military operation’ on Ukraine.
The Tiger Team helped the Biden administration in devising the sanctions against the Russian government, troop buildups in NATO member-states and arming the Ukrainian military.
NATO chief Jen Stoltenberg also said that allies will continue to support Ukraine. “Allies will agree to provide additional support, including cybersecurity assistance and equipment to help Ukraine protect against chemical, biological, radiologic and nuclear threats,” Stoltenberg was quoted as saying by the NYT.
The US political establishment pointed out that president Biden will have to take a tough call if Ukraine faces a nuclear attack. Jack Reed, Democratic senator from Rhode Island, said that if radiation from a nuclear attack spills onto a NATO member-state, then the US will have to take a call along with NATO whether to consider this as an attack on NATO Council.
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