Joe Biden has warned Vladimir Putin against using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine – warning of unspecified “consequences” if he does. In an interview on American television, journalist Scott Pelley suggests Mr Putin was being “pushed into a corner” after his forces were pushed back in the the Kharkiv region, with reports of Russian fleeing the battlefield.
He added: “I wonder, Mr President, what you would say to him if he is considering using chemical or tactical nuclear weapons.”
Mr Biden said: “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. You will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II.”
Asked what his response would be, Mr Biden added: “You think I would tell you if I knew exactly what it would be?
“Of course, I’m not gonna tell you. It’ll be consequential.“
They’ll become more of a pariah in the world than they ever have been.
“And depending on the extent of what they do will determine what response would occur.”
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Speaking on Monday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the West to speed up deliveries of weapons systems and called on allies to “strengthen cooperation to defeat Russian terror”.
He added: “Russia must be designated a terrorist state.
“Strengthen sanctions – the eighth EU sanctions package is needed.
“Increase aid to Ukraine, and above all speed up the provision of air defence systems.”
Last month a video surfaced in which Russian general Andrey Gurulyov urged Putin to launch missile strikes against the UK “to end the British Crown”.
During his extraordinary rant on Russian state television, the former deputy commander of the Southern Military District, now a deputy of the 8th State Duma, said an attack on Britain could “change the outcome of this conflict” in Ukraine.
He added: “Let’s make it super-simple. Two ships, 50 launches of Zircon missiles – and there is not a single power station left in the UK
”Fifty more Zircons – and the entire port infrastructure is gone. One more – and we forget about the British Isles.
“A Third World country, destroyed and fallen apart because Scotland and Wales would leave.
“This would be the end of the British Crown. And they are scared of it.”
Similarly, in June, he declared: “We’ll destroy the entire group of enemy’s space satellites during the first air operation.
“No one will care if they are American or British, we would see them all as NATO.”