Sharjah24 - AFP: Russian President Vladimir Putin is using nuclear "blackmail" to keep the international community from interfering in his Ukraine invasion, the head of the Nobel prize-winning group ICAN said
"This is one of the scariest moments really when it comes to nuclear weapons," Beatrice Fihn, who leads the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, told AFP in an interview Tuesday.
The 40-year-old Swede, who has spearheaded the group's global efforts to ban the weapons of mass destruction since 2013, said she had never in her lifetime seen the nuclear threat level so high.
"It is incredibly worrying and overwhelming."
Just days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its pro-Western neighbour on February 24, Putin ordered his country's nuclear forces to be put on high alert, sparking global alarm.
Addressing the US Congress on Tuesday, Avril Haines, US Director of National Intelligence, described Putin's move as "extremely unusual".
"We have not seen a public announcement from the Russians regarding a heightened nuclear alert status since the 1960s," she pointed out.
Fihn described the move as "extremely dangerous".
"Not only is this meant to instil fear in the whole world; it's also meant to scare anyone from helping in Ukraine."
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