For the first time since the Cold War, US President Joe Biden said Thursday that the world faces nuclear “Armageddon,” and that he is looking for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “off-ramp” in the Ukraine conflict.
“We haven’t faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis in 1962,” Biden said at a Democratic Party fundraiser in New York, referring to former US President John F. Kennedy.
Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons to pursue his invasion of Ukraine is “not joking,” according to Biden.
The president made his unusually strong remarks about the risks posed by Putin’s nuclear threats while speaking to party supporters at an event hosted by James Murdoch, son of newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch, in Manhattan.
Referring to the nuclear standoff that erupted 60 years ago when the Soviet Union stationed missiles in Cuba, within easy range of the United States, Biden stated that for the “first time since the Cuban missile crisis,” we face a direct threat from the use of nuclear weapons if things continue on their current course.
“We’re trying to figure out where Putin’s exit is,” Biden explained.
In the face of stiff resistance from Western-backed Kyiv, Putin has made thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons if he believes he has exhausted all options in his bid to seize swaths of Ukrainian territory.
According to experts, these would most likely be small, tactical strikes. However, Biden warned that such strikes in a limited area could spark a larger conflagration.
“We have a guy I know pretty well,” Biden said. Putin is “not joking” when he talks about the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons, biological or chemical weapons, because his military is “significantly underperforming.”
“I don’t think there’s any such thing as being able to easily (use) a tactical nuclear weapon without causing Armageddon,” Biden said.
The president’s remarks come as Ukraine retakes new territory from Russian troops, the latest in a string of Moscow defeats undermining the Kremlin’s claim to have annexed roughly 20% of Ukraine.
However, with Russia’s once-vaunted military in disarray, Washington and its Western allies are concerned about what Putin may have in mind on the battlefield.
“How does he find his way out?” Biden inquired.
“Where does he find himself in a position where he does not lose not only face, but significant power within Russia?”
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