Concept of limited nuke war suggested by US analysts dangerous: Moscow

United States analysts have started to seriously consider the possibility of waging a limited nuclear war, but such a concept is very dangerous and irresponsible, the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said on Thursday.

In mid-October, Elbridge Colby, the director of the defence program at the Centre for a New American Security and former deputy assistant secretary of defence for strategy and force development, wrote in an article for the Foreign Affairs magazine that nuclear weapons had not played a key role in the US defence strategy since the 1990s, and that Washington should now adjust its strategy and arsenal "to fight a limited nuclear war and come out on top" if Russia or China attempt to attack the United States or its allies.

"We regard such a policy as being irresponsible and extremely dangerous. We firmly believe that there can be no winner in a nuclear war, and it should never be unleashed," Zakharova told reporters. This idea of a limited nuclear war not introduced by the retired military official, Zakharova clarified, noting that similar ideas were set forth in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, which was published in early February.

Both the United States and Russia have been among the most powerful nuclear states since the Cold War. The two sides have signed a number of bilateral and international agreements aimed at stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the reduction of nuclear arsenals. In late October, US President Donald Trump said that he wanted to pull out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) with Russia Treaty, which required the two nations to cut their nuclear arsenals of ground-launched and cruise missiles with ranges between 300 and 3,410 miles.