US president Joe Biden says the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is at the highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
It comes as Russia is suffering massive setbacks in its eight-month war against Ukraine, which has seen Ukrainian troops recently regain ground.
Speaking at a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on Thursday, Mr Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “a guy I know fairly well” and the Russian leader was “not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons”.
He added: “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.”
He suggested the threat from Putin is real “because [Putin’s] military is — you might say — significantly underperforming”.
US officials for months have warned of the prospect that Russia could use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine as it has faced a series of strategic setbacks on the battlefield, though Biden’s remarks marked the starkest warnings yet issued by the US government about the nuclear stakes.
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