Biden presses the alarm button, says Putin’s nuclear threat could bring risk of ‘Armageddon’

US President Joe Biden has warned that Vladimir Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine might bring the world closer to “Armageddon” at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Biden said, “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis. 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.”

Biden said that the prospect of getting defeated in Russia-Ukraine war could make Putin use nuclear weapons. If in case the 70-year old takes this step, it would be the biggest risk faced since US President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev faced off over missiles in Cuba.

Biden added that it was no joke when Putin talked about using tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons, because his military is underperforming according to him.

Zelenskiy in a video address on Thursday said that Kyiv’s forces recaptured more than 500 square kilometres (195 square miles) and dozens of settlements in Kherson in October. Putin had proclaimed the annexation a week ago, but Ukraine has already recaptured the main Russian bastion in northern Donetsk, along with a swath of west bank territory in Kherson.

Putin called on hundreds of thousands of reservists after losing the territories. The move sent thousands of men fleeing the country to escape the draft. A suspected Russian missile demolished an apartment block in Zaporizhzhia yesterday. However, Ukraine still controls the city, which is the capital of a province claimed by Russia.

Bodies were carried out of the rubble, Reuters journalists witnessed. Zelenskiy in an online address accused Russia of targeting the same spot twice to kill responders.

In its defence, Russia said it does not target civilians. Russian news agency, RIA reported that four civilians were killed and three injured by a Ukrainian missile that hit a bus in the Russian-controlled city of Kherson.

It’s been seven-month since Putin forces invaded Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Kyiv’s forces are swiftly recapturing more territory.
 

(With input from agencies)

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