A special hotline in place to deflate crises between the Kremlin and the White House is not currently being used, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, as nuclear risks rise amid the highest tensions between Russia and West in decades. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a broader range of conventional attacks, days after reports said Washington had allowed Ukraine to use U.S.-made weapons to strike deep into Russia. Ukraine used U.S. ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory on Tuesday, taking advantage of the newly granted permission from the outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden on the war’s 1,000th day.