How the US could retaliate against Russia: Two possibilities – including nuclear weapons

One former senior US Republican official told Politico: “The Russians have something like 4,000 [tactical nuclear weapons] and they have an ‘escalate to win’ nuclear doctrine, which says ‘we use nuclear weapons first if the conventional conflict starts to spin out of our favour’.”

Meanwhile, Nikolai Sokov, a former Russian Foreign Ministry official, said he considers the risk of a conflict over Ukraine spilling into the nuclear arena as “extremely remote”.

Nonetheless, he admitted it’s conceivable one or both sides could dangerously miscalculate.

Mr Sokov gave the example of an accidental clash between Russian and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) aircraft or warships, which he said “may trigger direct confrontation and then it could roll”.