(PatrioticPost.com)- One former U.S. official recently said that former President Donald Trump was once warned by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he would use the nuclear option if he felt his hand was forced.
But, according to that official, Fiona Hill, Trump completely didn’t understand the warning that was being issued.
Hill, who once served as the senior director at the United States National Security Council for Europe and Russia, spoke with Politico about the topic. She shared that she believes Russia invading Ukraine is particularly dangerous because Putin has already warned in the past that he would indeed turn nuclear if he felt he had to.
This is particularly pertinent after Putin ordered his country’s nuclear forces on high alert. The order means the country’s nuclear weapons are to be prepared for the increased possibility that they will be launched, according to reporter Connor Perrett, who works for Business Insider.
According to Politico, Hill said Putin was “making it very clear that nuclear is on the table” for the war in Ukraine. There are further concerns of this after Russian forces took over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site in northern Ukraine. That site has been shut down and off limits to people since a nuclear disaster occurred there in 1986.
Hill further told Politico that she was present for the one of the final meetings that was held between Putin and Trump before the latter left the White House. In one of those meetings, Putin had issued a warning to Trump that Russia was prepared to use nuclear weapons if the Russian leader felt he was forced to.
But, Hill said she didn’t “think Trump figured out what he was saying.”
She explained to Politico:
“Putin was making the point that: ‘Well, you know Donald, we have these hypersonic missiles.’ And Trump was saying, ‘Well, we will get them, too.’ Putin was saying, ‘Well, yes, you will get them eventually, but we’ve got them first.'”
There was “a menace in this exchange,” according to Hill, who said Putin was “putting us on notice that if push came to shove in some confrontational environment that the nuclear option would be on the table.”
She further said that Putin believes having an “instrument” such as nuclear weapons means that he wants to use them.
To back up her point, Hill referenced an incident that happened in 2006, when Russian operatives used polonium, which is radioactive, against former spy and dissident Alexander Litvinenko. That same year, Russian operatives also used Novichok, a nerve agent that’s weapons-grade, against both opposition leader Alexei Navalny and agent Sergei Skripal.
Hill said this shows that Putin thinks:
“Why have it if you can’t [use it]? He’s already used a nuclear weapon in some respects.
“So, if anybody thinks that Putin wouldn’t use something that he’s got that is unusual and cruel, think again. Every time you think, ‘No, he wouldn’t, would he?’ Well, yes, he would. And he wants us to know that, of course.”
