By Tony O’Reilly-
The risk of a nuclear “Armageddon” is at its highest level since the 1962Cuban Missile Crisis, US President Joe Biden has said.
Mr Biden said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was “not joking” when he spoke of using tactical nuclear weapons after suffering setbacks in Ukraine.
The warning comes after the US and the EU have previously said Mr Putin’s nuclear sabre-rattling should be taken seriously.
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However, the US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan last week said that, despite Moscow’s nuclear hints, the US had seen no signs that Russia was imminently preparing to use a nuclear weapon. The absence of clear signs Russia might be imminently planning to use nuclear weapons does not mean it isn’t on the agenda.
US officials have been warning that Russia could resort to the use of weapons of mass destruction, if it suffers setbacks on the battlefield.
President Biden said the reason the Russian leader had not been “not joking” when he talked about using tactical nuclear, biological or chemical weapons – “because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming”.
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“For the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, we have a direct threat to the use of nuclear weapons, if in fact things continue down the path they’d been going,” Mr Biden told fellow Democrats.
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.”
The U.S president challenged Russian nuclear doctrine, warning that the use of a lower-yield tactical weapon could quickly spiral out of control.
“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, but the potential nightmarish situation was averted due to diplomacy.
Ukraine has been retaking territory occupied by Russia, including in the four regions Russia illegally annexed recently.
The 1962 crisis began when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev broke a promise and installed nuclear weapons in Cuba – putting Washington DC and New York city within range – testing new US President John F Kennedy.
Mr Kennedy considered a full-scale assault on Cuba, but decided on a naval blockade, and behind the scenes forced the Soviets to dismantle the missiles and take them back to Russia
During a speech last Friday, President Putin said the US had created a “precedent” by using nuclear weapons against Japan at the end of World War Two
Mr Putin has also threatened to use every means at his disposal to protect Russian territory.
Hundreds of thousands of men have been fleeing Russia rather than wait to be drafted to fight in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously dismissed Moscow’s nuclear threats as a “constant narrative of Russian officials and propagandists”.
But those comments are as reckless as Liz Truss’s continuous open declaration to continue to support Ukraine with weapons for as long as it takes to ensure its victory over Russia.
Paul Stronski, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the BBC that Russia’s “destabilising rhetoric” is aimed at deterring the West.
There has also been some pushback against Moscow’s nuclear threats in Russia itself. An editorial in the country’s mainstream Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper was heavily critical of “senior Russian officials” for “talking about the nuclear button”.
“To allow, in thoughts and words, the possibility of a nuclear conflict is a sure step to allowing it in reality.”
Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters on Thursday that Moscow had not changed its position that nuclear war “must never be waged”.
Yet, assurances from the kremlin are never ones to be wholly relied upon.
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