Biden does not believe Putin will use nukes
Joe Bide (Photo:REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)
U.S. President Joe Biden does not believe that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, he said in the interview with CNN on Oct. 11.
“I think it’s irresponsible for him (Putin) to talk about it, the idea that a world leader of one of the largest nuclear powers in the world says he may use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine,” Biden said.
According to the president, Putin’s threats have a destabilizing effect and could lead to potential errors in judgment.
“The whole point I was making was it could lead to just a horrible outcome,” Biden told CNN.
“Mistakes get made. And a miscalculation could occur, no one can be sure what would happen and could end in Armageddon.”
Biden declined to answer how the United States would respond if Putin were to use nuclear weapons, noting that the U.S. Defense Department has developed a plan for such an outcome.
“There’s been discussions of that, but I’m not going to get into that; it would be irresponsible of me to talk about what we would or wouldn’t do,” Biden said.
Previously, Ukrainian intelligence stated that they consider the level of threat of Russia's use of tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine to be very high. At the same time, according to Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate, Russia will not launch a nuclear strike in the near future.
U.S. officials earlier said that if Russia uses nuclear weapons against Ukraine, the West’s response will be decisive. The United States warned the Kremlin of “catastrophic consequences.”
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