This is the best summary I could come up with:

The US asked non-allies for help in an attempt to dissuade Russia from carrying out a nuclear strike in 2022, a senior US administration official told CNN.

“The concern from key countries for Russia and the Global South, was also a helpful, persuasive factor and showed them what the cost of all this could be,” another US official told the outlet.

And the Biden administration feared that this might trigger Putin to use nuclear weapons as a deterrent to avoid further losses, as he viewed the captured town of Kherson as part of Russia itself, per the CNN report.

In October 2022, Russian propagandists also began circulating a story suggesting that Ukraine was planning to use a “dirty bomb,” a device containing both radioactive material and regular explosives.

“Russian public messaging came way out of the left field on the potential for Ukraine to use a dirty bomb, which we saw not grounded in reality,” one of the administration officials said.

The Institute for the Study of War think tank said at the time that the move “likely sought to slow or suspend Western military aid” and “possibly weaken the NATO alliance in scare-mongering calls.”

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