Washington - Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlights the “acute threats” posed by Moscow, but China is the most consequential challenge for the United States, the US military said in a statement of its overall strategy released on Thursday. The Pentagon also made clear -- amid Russian talk of use of a nuclear weapon in the Ukraine war -- that the United States intends for its nuclear arsenal to deter “all forms of strategic attack,” including those involving conventional weapons. China “presents the most consequential and systemic challenge, while Russia poses acute threats -- both to vital US national interests abroad and to the homeland,” the unclassified version of the National Defense Strategy said. “The most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security is (China’s) coercive and increasingly aggressive endeavor to refashion the Indo-Pacific region and the international system to suit its interests and authoritarian preferences,” it said.