Joe Biden says he fears Vladimir Putin will put his nuclear threats into action

President Joe Biden said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s angry rhetoric over nuclear weapons and threats to the world suggested he was preparing to use weapons of mass destruction.

For weeks, U.S. officials have said they have not seen evidence that Russia has changed its nuclear posture despite fears that it could be preparing for one last desperate push in Ukraine.

But in an interview, Biden was asked whether he believed Putin when he said earlier that he had no intention of using chemical or nuclear weapons in Ukraine.  

‘I think if he has no intention, why does he keep talking about it?’ he told News Nation after a long pause.

‘Why is he talking about the ability to use a tactical nuclear weapon? He’s been very dangerous in how he’s approached this and he should just get out.

‘He can end this all, get out of Ukraine.’

Biden has got ahead of his administration on the issue before. Earlier this month he used the word ‘Armageddon’ to illustrate the dangers that could unleashed if Putin detonated tactical nuclear weapons.

‘He’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,’ he said then. 

This time he was responding to Putin’s calls for a ‘new world order’ in a major foreign policy speech in Moscow.

The Russian leader, laying out his warped view of global politics, accused westerners of ‘fanning the flames’ of war in both Ukraine and Taiwan (where fears are growing of a Chinese invasion), of sparking a global energy crisis and of causing a food crisis – all allegations that have been levelled at him.

Putin warned the world has entered its most dangerous period since the Second World War and a ‘new world order’ must emerge in which Russia gets a bigger say. ‘The West is no longer able to dictate its will to the humankind but still tries to do it, and the majority of nations no longer want to tolerate it,’ he said.

‘Dominion of the world is what West has decided to stake in this game. It is a dangerous, deadly and dirty game.’

Putin said that Moscow has no intention to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, despite issuing repeated warnings in the past that he was prepared to use all available means to defend Russia, including its vast nuclear arsenal.

‘We see no need for that,’ Putin said at the conference of international foreign policy experts. ‘There is no point in that, neither political nor military.’ The Russian leader insisted for weeks before the invasion that he did not intend to attack Ukraine, before ordering his troops across the border on February 24.

While at points Putin sounded as if he was offering an olive branch – saying Russia ‘is not an enemy of the West’ and ‘only wants the right to develop’ – he made it clear that any talks on his ‘new order’ would have to be on Moscow’s terms. 

The West, he said, had repeatedly rejected Moscow’s plans for peace laid out before the war in Ukraine – such as the withdrawal of all NATO troops from ex-Soviet states, against the wishes of their governments – and had instead chosen conflict.

He claimed that he had told the West: ‘Let’s be friends, have dialogue and strengthen trust and peace.’

‘We were completely sincere,’ he added. ‘What did we get in response? A ‘no’ on every possible area of cooperation.’

In fact, the US and NATO had both sent letters to Russia laying out possible grounds for cooperation before Putin invaded Ukraine, which Moscow rejected. 

Russia isn’t the enemy of the West but will continue to oppose the diktat of Western neo-liberal elites, he said, accusing them of trying to subdue Moscow.

‘Their goal is to make Russia more vulnerable and turn it into an instrument for fulfilling their geopolitical tasks, they have failed to achieve it and they will never succeed,’ Putin said.

The Russian president reaffirmed his long-held claim that Russians and Ukrainians are part of a single people and again denigrated Ukraine as an ‘artificial state,’ which received historic Russian lands from Communist rulers during the Soviet times.

The Russian president also stated that his country is ‘ready for talks’ on Ukraine.

Speaking about the conflict, Putin said he thinks ‘all the time’ about the casualties Russia has suffered in the conflict, but insisted he was left with no choice but to attack and that Russia would have paid a higher price if it had not acted.

He denied underestimating Ukraine’s ability to fight back and insisted that his ‘special military operation’ has proceeded as planned.

The Russian leader said: ‘About our country, you know, of course, we have costs, most notably regards losses in the special military operation. I think about it all the time. There are also economic losses, but there are enormous gains. And ultimately, and I want to emphasize, ultimately, all that is happening now will undoubtedly benefit Russia and its future. Why? Because it’s connected to strengthening our sovereignty.’

Putin also acknowledged the challenges posed by Western sanctions, but argued that Russia has proven resilient to foreign pressure and become more united.

The speech is just the latest in a string of ranting addresses that Putin has given since launching his war, laying out his historical grievances, distorted view of current events, and his vision for the future.

He has repeatedly talked of creating a ‘multipolar world order’ in which Western capitals, including Washington, would have to kowtow to Moscow and Beijing.

Accusing the West of trying to ‘cancel’ Russia and its history, he has presented the conflict in Ukraine as an existential struggle for what he presents as ‘Russian values’.

Kyiv argues the Russian invasion is a genocidal mission to both rewrite history – including the fall of the Soviet Union, which Putin called a ‘catastrophe’ – and to ensure Ukraine cannot draw closer to the West.

In his speech, Putin accused NATO of ‘starting to seize the territories of Ukraine long ago’ and insisted he was forced to invade to protect people. 

He also said on Thursday that hard-line Ukrainian nationalists were willing to ‘fight until the last Ukrainian’ in the conflict with Russia.

Putin said Ukraine had suffered heavy losses in the eight-month conflict and criticised Ukrainian ‘hardline patriots’ and ‘banderites,’ a tag Russian officials and commentators often use to describe Ukrainian fighters who they say are neo-Nazis and fascists, for being willing to sacrifice their fellow fighters. 

Amid fears that Putin’s war could go nuclear, he today denied having any intentions of using the weapons in Ukraine.  

But he described the conflict there as part of alleged efforts by the West to secure its global domination, which he insisted are doomed to fail.

Speaking at a conference of international foreign policy experts, Putin said it’s pointless for Russia to strike Ukraine with nuclear weapons.

‘We see no need for that,’ Putin said. ‘There is no point in that, neither political, nor military.’

Putin said an earlier warning of his readiness to use ‘all means available to protect Russia’ didn’t amount to nuclear saber-rattling but was merely a response to Western statements about their possible use of nuclear weapons.

He particularly mentioned Liz Truss saying in August that she would be ready to use nuclear weapons if she became Britain’s prime minister, a remark which he said worried the Kremlin.

‘What were we supposed to think?’ Putin said. ‘We saw that as a coordinated position, an attempt to blackmail us.’

Without offering evidence, the Russian leader repeated Moscow’s unproven allegation that Ukraine was plotting a false flag attack involving a radioactive dirty bomb it would try to pin on Russia.

Ukraine has strongly rejected the claim, and its Western allies have dismissed it as ‘transparently false.’ Ukraine argued Russia might be making the unfounded allegation to serve as a cover for its own possible plot to detonate a dirty bomb.

Putin said he personally ordered Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to call his foreign counterparts to tell them about the purported plot. He maintained that Russia knows the Ukrainian facilities working on the project.

Putin claimed, still without citing any proof, that Kyiv’s plan was to rig a missile with radioactive waste and to characterize its explosion as a Russian nuclear strike in an effort to isolate Russia in the global arena.

He mocked the allegations by Ukraine and the West that Russia was firing on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine as ‘ravings.’ Russian troops have occupied the plant, Europe’s largest, since the early days of the conflict and Moscow has accused Ukraine of continuously shelling it.

Also in his speech, speaking about Saudi Arabia, he said that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman should be respected and that Russia was set on boosting relations with them.

It comes amid tensions between Saudi Arabia and the US after the OPEC+, chaired by Saudi Arabia, voted to reduce oil output by around 2 million barrels per day on October 5.

The United States’ has criticised Prince Mohammed and the OPEC+ oil alliance for agreeing to cut oil production, a move seen as a boost to Russia’s attempts to protect its economy in the face of Western sanctions. 

Putin also used today’s address to state that the price of oil is ‘not that important’, after the US were forced to scale back a plan to impose a cap.

Putin also today said that Russia’s relations with China were at an ‘unprecedented level’ as he called China’s President Xi Jinping a ‘close friend.’

Moscow and Beijing signed a no-limits partnership just days before Russia launched its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine in February, and Russia has sought to forge closer political and economic ties with China in the face of Western sanctions. 

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi today reiterated Bejing’s backing of Russia, despite western criticism over the war.

Wang said in a call with his counterpart Sergei Lavrov, according to state broadcaster CCTV: ‘China will also firmly support the Russian side, under the leadership of President (Vladimir) Putin, to unite and lead the Russian people to overcome difficulties and eliminate disturbances,’ 

‘China is willing to deepen contacts with the Russian side at all levels,’ Wang said.

Putin today also said in his speech that the United States was wrong to destroy its relations with China over Taiwan.

He said Russia recognises Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China and said visits by U.S. officials, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – who Putin referred to as ‘grandma’ – to Taiwan were a provocation. 

The Russian leader also said that the United States will have to replenish its oil reserves as they release them now. 

He also rubbished the allegation that Russia blew up Nord Stream in the Baltic Sea, referring to it as ‘crazy’.

Danish police have said powerful explosions caused ruptures to the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 undersea pipelines, potentially putting them permanently out of use. Putin previously said the West blew up the pipelines, while European leaders have accused Russia of sabotage. 

The Russian leader claimed that one of the two pipelines is working but that Europe ‘does not want to use it.’

The Russian president used his long speech to also declare that the country will let its partners in Asia to develop energy producing assets.

Speaking of South Korea’s decision to supply weapons to Ukraine, he said that it would ‘destroy our relations.’ 

He also launched into a rant against ‘cancel culture’, accusing the West of trying to erase diversity and stamp out whatever it cannot tolerate.

‘Those who formulate [global] rules believe others don’t have right to unique path,’ he told listeners.

‘It is no coincidence that West wants their view accepted as universal, and they insist through their politics of everyone must be accepting these values.’ 

He also criticised European leaders in his speech, claiming that the crisis in the area has been caused by them.

Putin added that Russia is not an enemy of Europeans and ‘never had any malicious intentions towards Europe.’

In his address, he also took aim at France for publishing contents of a phone call he had with President Emmanuel Macron days before Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February.

Putin said the release showed that his conversations with the French leader were being listened in on.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly hit out at Vladimir Putin after the Russian president gave a speech on Thursday.

‘Putin’s message today to the Russian people is unclear, untrue and unedifying,’ he tweeted.

‘What is crystal clear, is our message to the world:

‘Aggressors must not be able to invade their neighbours with impunity.

‘We will resolutely support Ukraine in its fight for freedom and democracy.’

Meanwhile, the White House said after Putin’s speech that his address ‘was not that new’ and does not indicate a change in strategic goals.

Since the beginning of the war, Putin has passed sweeping censorship laws and jailed anyone who criticses him. 

Russia is now into its ninth month of the Ukraine war and has so-far failed to achieve any of Putin’s war aims, which included the overthrow of the government and the ‘liberation’ of the Donbas region. 

Having fought Russia to a standstill across almost the entire country, Ukraine is now recapturing territory from Putin’s troops.

Thousands of square miles of land in the north and south have been returned to Ukrainian control in recent weeks, with the city of Kherson now within reach.

Kyiv has vowed that it will not stop fighting until all of its land – including areas annexed by Putin in 2014 – has been liberated.

In order to stop the rot, Putin has been forced to mobilise 300,000 reservists into the army and call on allies such as Iran to supply additional weapons.

He has also annexed the Ukrainian territory Russia currently occupies to the mainland, and threatened to use nukes to protect it.

However, that has failed to stop the Ukrainian advanced and has done nothing to weaken Western resolve to supply arms and money to Kyiv.