On Thursday night, President Joe Biden issued a startling warning about the President’s recent threats Vladimir Putin it could escalate into a nuclear conflict, telling supporters at a fundraiser in New York City that the risk of an atomic war had not been higher since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
“We haven’t addressed the Armageddon perspective since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” Biden told a crowd during the second of two fundraisers he attended Thursday night.
“We are trying to understand: what is Putin’s exit ramp?”
Biden said, adding: “Where do you find a way out? Where would he find himself not only unmasked but also losing significant power?
Biden’s references to Armageddon were a lot unusual for any American president.
Not since the Cuban Missile Crisis 60 years ago this month have the occupants of the Oval Office not spoken so darkly about the possible use of nuclear weapons, let alone openly “exit ramps”.
The president’s warnings, delivered bluntly to a group of Democratic donors rather than in a more formal context, came as analysts in Washington debated whether Putin could resort to tactical nuclear weapons to offset his growing military losses in Ukraine. .
In an angry and fiery speech last week, Putin raised the specter of using nuclear weapons to maintain his territorial gains, which Ukraine’s powerful counter-offensives have begun to erode.
Putin said he will use “all available means” to defend Russian territory, which he said now includes four provinces in eastern Ukraine that Russia has illegally annexed in recent days.
The atomic bombs the United States dropped on Japan in 1945, Putin said in that speech, were “Created a precedent”.
His comments and others from top Russian leaders represent the first time since 1962 that Moscow officials have made nuclear threats. explicit.
Officials in Washington have envisioned scenarios in which Putin might decide to use a tactical nuclear weapon to offset the failures of Russian troops in Ukraine.
In late February, Putin demanded that his nuclear forces be put on high alert, but there is no evidence that they did.
Contrary to Biden’s comparison, US officials say they don’t think this moment is as tense as the Cuban missile crisis, during which Kennedy declared a quarantine in Cuba to stop sending nuclear weapons to the island.
The chances of Putin using an atomic weapon remain low, they said.
But they are clearly concerned that Russian military doctrine treats tactical weapons as a potential element of conflict between ground forces.
And it was that doctrine that Biden indicated he was most concerned about, given the possibilities of rapid escalation.
Tactical weapons come in many sizes and varieties, most with a tiny fraction of the destructive power of the bombs the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
But they are difficult to use and control.
On Thursday, Biden said he did not think it was possible for Russia to use a tactical weapon and “not end Armageddon”.
“We have a guy I know quite well,” Biden told Putin at the fundraiser.
“He’s not kidding when he talks about the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his army, one could say, is significantly underperforming.”
In late September, Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, said any use of nuclear weapons would “catastrophic consequences “ for Russia and added that in private communications with Moscow, the United States had “explained” how the United States and the world would react.
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Source: Clarin
