The United States is sending sensors to Ukraine that can detect flashes of radiation from a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb and confirm the attacking country, according to the New York Times.

Part of the goal is to make sure that if Russia detonates a radioactive weapon on Ukrainian soil, Moscow can be proven guilty..

Installation of radiation sensors, training of personnel and monitoring of data are carried out by nuclear experts of the Special Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST). Its spokesman told the NYT that the sensor network is being rolled out "

Public awareness of such defense planning, nuclear experts say, could deter Moscow by letting it know Washington could expose Russian provocations..

For example, Moscow may falsely claim that Kyiv carried out a nuclear explosion on the battlefield to try to attract the West.. But in theory, with a network of sensors, Washington could point to its own nuclear attribution analysis to discover that Russia was indeed behind the attack..

The science of nuclear attribution experienced rapid development in the United States following the September 2001 terrorist attacks that raised questions of domestic nuclear terrorism..

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Earlier, the Pentagon commented on the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons in a war..

Also, former US Vice President Michael Pence commented on nuclear threats, saying that it makes no sense to react to them..