“We’ve got a guy I know fairly well,” the president said of Putin,warning that the world was facing “the prospect of Armageddon”.
“He’s not joking when he talks about the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is,you might say,significantly underperforming.”
“(For the) first time since the Cuban missile crisis,we have thethreat of a nuclear weapon if in fact,things continue down the path they are going.”
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Biden’s comments come two weeks after Putin declared a partial military mobilisation to call up as many as 300,000 reservists and hinted he was prepared to deploy “all the means at our disposal” in his battle against Ukraine.
The move sparked angry protests in Russia,a rush of would-be conscriptstrying to fleethe country,and widespread condemnation from world leaders,many of whom were in Manhattan attending the UN General Assembly at the time.
UK’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss accused Putin of “making yet more bogus claims and sabre-rattling threats.” French President Emmanuel Macron called on the international community to “put maximum pressure” on Russia. And Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong described Putin’s comments as “unthinkable” and “irresponsible”.