The Kremlin on Monday refused to comment on CNN’s report that the United States of America had “hardly” prepared for a possible Russian nuclear attack on Ukraine at the end of 2022, Reuters reports.

CNN reported on Saturday that US President Joe Biden’s administration was particularly concerned that Russia might use tactical or combat nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

It was not a single indicator that led the Joe Biden administration to such an unexpected assessment, but a series of events, analyzes and, importantly, highly confidential new information. The U.S. administration’s fears, a senior administration official said, “were not just hypothetical — they were based on certain information that we had gathered.”

“These are assumptions that are published in various newspapers,” Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov told reporters. “I don’t think they deserve any comments.”

Contingency plans began to be made at an unprecedented level after senior members of the Biden administration became increasingly alarmed by the situation, according to CNN.

“We had to plan so that we were in the best possible position if this event – which is already not inconceivable – happened,” the same senior US administration official said.

According to officials cited by CNN, such a scenario cannot be ruled out.

If such a strike were to occur in Ukraine, it would be the first nuclear strike since the US dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki nearly 80 years ago.

Follow the latest developments from The 747th day of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HOTNEWS.RO.