What if Putin uses nukes? White House has Tiger Team in place to decide: Reports

The White House has a special team in the place known as the Tiger Team which is tasked to figure out how the United States should respond if Russian President Vladimir Putin decides to use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in its ongoing war against Ukraine.

The Tiger Team, as reported by the New York Times, comprises national security officials and the existence of such a team proves that the US is not ruling out the possibility that Putin might unleash his nukes and biological weapons being frustrated with the little inroad that it has made in the month-long conflict.

According to the NYT report, the Tiger Team, a term used for an emergency task force, was set up on February 28, four days after Putin authorised the special military operation and, since then, the team members are meeting thrice a week in classified sessions. “The team is also looking at responses if Russia seeks to extend the war to neighbouring nations, including Moldova and Georgia, and how to prepare European countries for the refugees flowing in on a scale not seen in decades,” the report said.

Does the US really believe Putin will turn to nukes?

As reported by NYT, White House officials are actually in two minds about Putin’s future course of action. They believe chances that Putin will do something so desperate are small but the stalemate situation may trigger Putin. A senior administration official told NYT that any use of a “small” tactical nuclear bomb by Russia, which may not be directed at a NATO member, would mean that “all bets are off”. But how the US would respond to such a situation has been kept under the wrap

Another major issue in front of the Tiger Team is to steer US’s response amid the escalating war as President Biden has made it clear that the US will not send its troops to Ukraine.

4 things Putin could do now

According to Senator Angus King, there are four things that Putin could now do and the last of them will be using nukes just to threaten the world. According to the senator, the others are: 1. Trying to strike a diplomatic agreement; 2. Intensifying the attack and bombing Ukraine cities; 3. Engineering a cyberattack on the Weest. The last will be an escalation with an aim to de-escalate where Putin could deploy a nuke only to negotiate.