US unprepared for nuclear response to possible Russian strike on Ukraine

The US was preparing a response in case Russia used nuclear weapons against Ukraine. However, this response would have been "non-nuclear," according to The New York Times.
As noted by the media, the peak of concern regarding a possible nuclear attack by Russia came in October 2022. At that time, Russian president Vladimir Putin stated that Russia could use "nukes" against Ukraine.
According to New York Times, during several weeks in October 2022, the White House was engulfed in crisis. The administration of US President Joe Biden feared that Moscow might use tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield.
According to sources cited by the publication, the White House's concern was so great that task forces were convened to determine what the US response might be.
Biden's team believed that the response should be "non-nuclear," but according to representatives of the US President's administration, the reaction should be dramatic - possibly a "conventional attack on units that had launched nuclear weapons."
In the White House, it was believed that the use of nuclear weapons in response could encourage Putin and other authoritarian states to use their nuclear arsenal.
It is worth noting that Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly threatened Ukraine and Western countries with nuclear weapons.
In addition, Russia has moved its nuclear weapons to Belarus. However, the president Alexander Lukashenko cannot use them independently.
As reported by the American news outlet CNN, the US was preparing for a nuclear strike by Russia on Ukraine by the end of 2022. Washington relied on some intelligence information.
"We had to plan so that we were in the best possible position in case this no longer unthinkable event actually took place," a senior US administration official told CNN.
According to another US official, from late summer to fall 2022, the US National Security Council convened a series of meetings to develop contingency plans, including for either very clear signs of a nuclear strike in the making or an actual strike.
"How we would respond, how we would try to preempt it, or deter it," the official explained.
The United States believed that the loss of Kherson could provoke Russia to a nuclear strike on Ukraine, as Moscow could see it as an "existential threat," the unnamed American official said. A nuclear strike could also be seen by the Kremlin as a tool to deter Ukraine from further liberation of territories or a potential attack on Russia.