President compares threat now with the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought world to brink of catastrophe in 1962…reports Asian Lite News
President Joe Biden has warned the risk of nuclear “armageddon” is at its highest since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, as Moscow talks openly of the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons in its invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking to party donors, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons, because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming.”
And he challenged Russian nuclear doctrine, warning that the use of a lower-yield tactical weapon could quickly spiral out of control.
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“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,” Biden added.
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.”
The 13-day crisis in 1962, when the US discovered the then Soviet Union had deployed nuclear missiles to Cuba, is thought to be the closest the world has ever come to nuclear annihilation.
Disaster was averted thanks to deft diplomacy.
US officials have been warning for months of the prospect that Moscow could use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine as it faces a series of strategic setbacks on the battlefield and Ukraine retakes more of its lands in the south and east of the country.
Biden’s remarks are the starkest yet made by anyone in the US government about the nuclear stakes, but the president also stressed officials were trying to “figure out” how Putin might be able to extricate himself from the situation.
“Where does he find a way out?” Biden asked. “Where does he find himself in a position that he does not only lose face, but lose significant power within Russia?”
Putin has repeatedly alluded to using his country’s vast nuclear arsenal, including last month when he announced the annexation of four areas of Ukraine that Russia does not fully control.
“We will defend our land with all the powers and means at our disposal,” he said.
The annexations followed hastily-organised referendums in the four areas that Ukraine and its allies condemned as a “sham” and illegal.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres described the plan as a “dangerous escalation“.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier on Thursday that Putin understood that the “world will never forgive” a Russian nuclear strike.
“He understands that after the use of nuclear weapons he would be unable any more to preserve, so to speak, his life, and I’m confident of that,” Zelenskyy said.
Intelligence agencies believe that Putin has come to see defeat in Ukraine as an existential threat to his regime, which he associates with an existential threat to Russia, potentially justifying, according to his worldview, the use of nuclear weapons.
Putin urges measures to cushion sanctions
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded economic measures in response to Western sanctions, which are expected to intensify.
“It is important to understand that the sanctions pressure on Russia will only increase,” Putin said at a government meeting on Thursday via video link.
“In this regard, it is necessary to plan flexible, effective actions for both short and medium terms and consistently implement them,” the President said.
Putin asked the government and the central bank to ensure a sustainable recovery of macroeconomic indicators.
Export-oriented sectors remain under pressure, primarily those targeting European countries, and it takes time for Russian exporters to switch to other markets, he noted.
Meanwhile, Putin pointed out some positive trends, as industrial production had returned to the level of the previous year.
Worst-hit industries, such as the automotive industry and metallurgy, are gradually recovering and agriculture also shows good dynamics, he said.
Russia will lose, says Zelensky
Virtually addressing the first meeting of a new political club of nations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said for Russia to lose its ongoing war against Kiev, “we must implement our peace formula”.
On Thursday, leaders from the European Union (EU), the UK, Turkey, Norway and the Balkans met at the first European Political Community in Prague, during which they discussed energy, migration and security, with a particular focus on the war in Ukraine.
Congratulating on the formation of the Community, the President said that due to this initiative, “we have received not just another format of cooperation in Europe, but an extremely powerful opportunity to restore peace in Europe”, according to a statement issued by Zelensky’s office.
“We are now in a strong position to direct all possible powers of Europe to end the war and guarantee long-term peace, for Ukraine, for Europe, for the world.
“Ukraine never wanted this war. Ukraine did nothing to provoke it. Ukraine has always been a leader in peaceful settlement,” Zelensky stressed.
The Ukrainian leader accused Russia of making “attempts on people in various European countries”, as well as “sabotage in Europe — against warehouses with weapons, against factories, and now against gas pipelines”.
“Russia intimidates and blackmails for the world to stop helping those it kills. It uses everything from the food crisis to radiation blackmail, from destabilising energy markets to nuclear blackmail. All in order to break the unity of allies and partners, to intimidate nations, to make millions of people afraid and on the basis of this fear, to give in,” the statement quoted the President as saying.
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