As the global COVID-19 pandemic finally loosens its grip on the public consciousness as an object of existential fear, a new fear is being replaced by nuclear annihilation, The Hill reported.

According to international scholars and public opinion curators, the war in Ukraine has stoked U.S. nuclear fears like no other event since the end of the Cold War. In polls this year, a majority of Americans said they believe Russian President Vladimir Putin could use nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

Nuclear anxiety escalated after the war began, and then escalated further when Putin put his nuclear forces on high alert a few days later. Tensions eased in the summer when the war in Ukraine disappeared from the headlines and Americans began to see a protracted war as the new normal. Fears intensified again this month amid speculation that Putin might resort to the use of nuclear weapons to stem rising casualties.

Several polls conducted in February and March showed Americans increasingly worried about imminent nuclear danger. In a new Reuters-Ipsos poll released Monday, 58 percent of respondents said they feared the United States was headed toward nuclear war.

Some scientists say the threat of nuclear conflict is higher now than at any time since the end of World War II.