President Biden warns of nuclear ‘Armageddon’

President Joe Biden delivered a stark warning on Thursday when he cautioned that the threat of nuclear “Armageddon” is at its highest point in nearly 60 years after Russian President Vladimir Putin renewed his threats.

Putin hit out at the United States along with its allies, accusing them of “nuclear blackmail” and said that high-ranking members of NATO states had strongly considered “using nuclear weapons of mass destruction against Russia.”

Putin then delivered strong comments stating his desire to defend Russia.

“If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people,” Putin said, an apparent reference to Moscow’s sizable nuclear arsenal, according to The Independent. “It’s not a bluff,” he added.

While speaking at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Biden cautioned that this is the first time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis that there has been a “direct threat” of nuclear weapons’ being used, “if, in fact, things continue down the path they are going.”

“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Biden said.

Biden went on to say that Putin’s “not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons, because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming.”

Biden also said he did not believe tactical nuclear weapon could be used without causing a severe amount of damage worldwide.

“I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily [use] a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon,” he said.

US officials said Thursday that the US has not detected preparations for a nuclear strike.

Experts have said that the US should be on guard for such an event should Russia’s invasion continue to stall, and Ukraine claim back more territory.

“This nuclear saber rattling is reckless and irresponsible,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. General Pat Ryder said on Thursday, per CNN. “As I’ve mentioned before, at this stage, we do not have any information to cause us to change our strategic deterrence posture, and we don’t assess that President Putin has made a decision to use nuclear weapons at this time.”