In his November 2024 book ‘War’, The Washington Post’s Deputy Editor-in-Chief Bob Woodward writes that President Joe Biden’s team saw the attack on Kherson as the peak of the threat of a Russian nuclear strike and felt relief when Russian forces withdrew, according to an NV article on the book on Jan. 19.
In his book on the Russian war against Ukraine, Bob Woodward focuses on the fall of 2022, when the Ukrainian army was advancing on Kherson. He recalls how, during a rapid counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukrainian forces “regained more territory in five days than Russian troops had captured in their entire operation.”
“Now, with Ukrainian flags flying in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukrainian troops turned south to liberate the city of Kherson on the west bank of Dnipro,” Woodward writes, noting that the offensive in Kherson Oblast had been ongoing since summer 2022.
However, Woodward notes that from that point until the liberation of Kherson on Nov. 11, there were growing concerns within the Biden administration that a major defeat of Russian forces in Kherson could provoke Russia to use tactical nuclear weapons.
“Putin deployed about 30,000 troops to Kherson. U.S. intelligence estimated that if Russian forces there were surrounded, there would be a 50% chance Putin would order the use of tactical nuclear weapons to avoid such catastrophic battlefield losses,” Woodward writes. He emphasizes that “Kherson was of immense strategic importance to Moscow,” from access to Dnipro River to control of the Russian land bridge in southern Ukraine.
CIA Director William Burns expressed concerns that if Kherson fell, it could lead to Russian military collapse and threaten Putin’s control over Crimea. Woodward highlights that a catastrophic defeat could provide Putin a pretext to use nuclear weapons, in line with his doctrine. “The Crimea issue,” Burns said, “was existential for Putin, because if he lost Crimea, the very basis of his existence as Russian president would be called into question.”
Woodward argues that the intelligence reports read by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan became the “most disturbing” assessment of Putin’s intentions since the invasion began in February 2022. He adds that Americans learned Putin had allegedly “weakened operational control” to facilitate the use of nuclear weapons.
The decisive factor that ultimately “calmed down” Washington was that the Ukrainian Armed Forces were unable to advance quickly enough in Kherson Oblast to defeat Russian forces.
Woodward writes that the Biden administration “breathed a sigh of relief” when Russian occupation forces “safely” withdrew from Kherson. “Another decisive factor in Putin’s refusal to use nuclear weapons was that a catastrophic breakthrough by Russian forces did not occur. Ukraine advanced slowly, gradually, and Russian forces safely withdrew across Dnipro and from Kherson. Only then did the U.S. intelligence community revise its assessment of the nuclear threat,” he concludes.
“Woodward writes that the Biden administration “breathed a sigh of relief” when Russian occupation forces “safely” withdrew from Kherson. ”
This is probably the most disgraceful act of the whole war. Being relieved because the enemy escaped is treason. Then announcing to the world, plans for a Ukrainian counteroffensive, giving the orcs time to build huge defences was yet another disgraceful episode.
My conclusion to Biden’s behavior, his name has become synonymous with the word fear.