National Security Council spokesman John Kirby rejected Putin’s justification for moving the nukes – Britain providing Ukraine with rounds containing depleted uranium – saying the armor-piercing ammunition is not a nuclear threat, is common on the battlefield and that Russia also uses it.

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu called Russia’s nuclear rhetoric “dangerous and irresponsible.” Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, tweeted Sunday that Putin’s announcement was “a step toward internal destabilization” and that Putin “took Belarus as a nuclear hostage.”