War in Ukraine, live: Joe Biden warns of a risk of nuclear “apocalypse” as the Ukrainian counter-offensive continues – Le Monde

Joe Biden warns of a risk of nuclear “apocalypse” The President of the United States, Joe Biden, warned on Thursday against the risk of “apocalypse”, for the first time since the Cold War, because of the threats to use nuclear weapons by Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin “is not joking when he talks about the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons, because his army, you could say, is very weak”, said Mr. Biden at a Democratic Senate campaign fundraiser in New York City. Facing stubborn Ukrainian resistance fueled by Western military aid, Putin hinted at the atomic bomb in a televised speech on September 21. He said he was ready to use “all the means” at his disposal in his arsenal against the West, which he accused of wanting to “destroy” Russia. “It’s not a bluff,” he said, adding that the United States had set “a precedent” when it bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. “We were not faced with the prospect of an apocalypse since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis ”, in 1962, alerted, Thursday, the president of the United States. According to experts, an atomic attack would likely employ tactical nuclear weapons – smaller in explosive charge than a strategic nuclear weapon. But Washington considers that even a tactical nuclear strike could trigger a wider conflagration. Mr. Biden also said he wondered about a way out for his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin: “How can he get out of this? How can he position himself so as not to lose face or a significant portion of his power in Russia? »