Journalism of Courage
US President Joe Biden warned on Thursday (October 6) that the world currently faces its biggest risk of an “Armageddon” in the last 60 years, in his most outspoken remarks about nuclear weapons in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Biden, during a Democratic Party fundraiser, said that Putin’s indirect threat of using tactical nuclear weapons marked the first prospect of a nuclear armageddon since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the Soviet Union and the US almost engaged in nuclear warfare.
“I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily (use) a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon,” he claimed.
Putin in September had hinted at Russia’s nuclear arsenal in his announcement to annex four partially occupied regions of Ukraine. During his address, Putin warned that “when the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal. He added, “This is not a bluff”.
Accusing NATO officials of making statements about “the possibility and admissibility of using weapons of mass destruction against Russia – nuclear weapons,” Putin warned that Russia had “lots of weapons to reply.”
At Thursday’s fundraiser, Biden said he knew Putin “fairly well” and that the Russian leader was “not joking when he talks about the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons, because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming.”
Ukraine claims that Russian forces have faced large setbacks over the past few months and that through counteroffensive operations, their military has been able to retake territories in the south and northeast of the country.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Friday that Ukraine has liberated a total of 2,434 square kilometres in the east of the country in their latest campaign, of which 776 kilometres were retaken in the last week alone, as reported by Reuters.
On September 21, Putin announced a partial mobilisation drive of 300,000 reservists to assist in his military campaign, indicating that he is unlikely to disengage his forces from Ukraine any time soon. Many Russian men have fled the country since then to avoid fighting in the war.
Despite Putin’s bellicose rhetoric, there is no new evidence to suggest that he is planning to escalate to nuclear warfare, which was confirmed by Biden’s administration a day after his comments.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Friday that the US did not have any new intelligence to suggest that “Russia is preparing to imminently use nuclear weapons.”
When asked about Biden’s comments, she told reporters, “He was reinforcing what we have been saying, which is how seriously we take these threats about nuclear weapons.”
Other Western leaders have been more cautious in openly speaking about the threat of nuclear war. “We must speak with prudence when commenting on such matters,” France’s President Emmanuel Macron said in response to Biden’s comments at the EU Summit in Prague on Friday.
Since Ukraine’s invasion on February 24, Putin has repeatedly made blunt, personal criticisms of Putin. After delivering a speech in Warsaw in March, Biden said in reference to Putin, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” Immediately after his forceful remarks, as reported by the Associated Press, his aides were forced to clarify that the US was not officially calling for an immediate change of government in Russia.
He had also previously called Putin a “war criminal,” the news agency reported, forcing the White House into damage control, with Biden’s then-press secretary, Jen Psaki, stating that he was “speaking from his heart,” and acknowledging that the label requires an investigation and international determination.
Moscow on Thursday condemned Zelensky’s statement in which he suggested that NATO should launch preventative strikes so that Russia is unable to use nuclear weapons, as reported by Reuters.
“Such statements are nothing other than an appeal to start yet another world war with unpredictable, monstrous consequences,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
During Putin’s announcement in September, when he said he would use all means at his disposal to protect his territory, Putin claimed that the atomic bombs that the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 had “created a precedent” for the use of nuclear weapons.
