Senior Russian military leaders discussed last month how and when they might use nuclear weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine, two US officials have told CBS News.
Vladimir Putin was not involved in the talks, they told the BBC’s US partner.
The White House said it had grown “increasingly concerned” about the potential use of nuclear weapons over the last few months.
But it stressed the US saw no sign of Russia preparing for such use.
That chimes with earlier Western intelligence assessments that Moscow has not been moving its nuclear weapons.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused the West of “deliberately pumping up the topic”, although the timing of the high-level Russian military discussions in mid-October is significant.
