Risk of ‘Armageddon’ highest since 1962, Biden says
The risk of Armageddon is the highest it has been since the early 1960s,
President Joe Biden said Thursday night as Russian losses in Ukraine prompt
Russian officials to discuss the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons.
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban
Missile Crisis,” Biden said at a fundraiser in New York for the Democratic
Senatorial Campaign Committee. In October 1962 the U.S. and the Soviet Union
were seemingly on the verge of a nuclear conflict after the U.S. deployment of
ballistic missiles in Turkey and Italy was countered by the Soviet deployment
of similar missiles in Cuba.
The president said that Russia President Vladimir Putin, “a guy I know
fairly well,” is not joking when he talks of using “nuclear or biological or
chemical weapons.”
“I don’t think there is any such a thing as the ability to easily use a
tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon,” Biden said.
Speaking to Democratic donors, Biden said he and U.S. officials were
still “trying to figure out Putin's off-ramp” in Ukraine.
“Where does he find a way out?” Biden asked. "Where does he find
himself in a position he does not only lose face but lose significant power
within Russia?”
Ukraine utilizing
captured Russian tanks
Britain’s defence ministry said in an intelligence update posted on
Twitter Friday that “Re-purposed captured Russian equipment makes up a large
proportion of Ukraine’s military hardware. Ukraine has likely captured at least
440 Russian Main Battle Tanks, and around 650 other armoured vehicles since the
invasion. Over half of Ukraine’s currently fielded tank fleet potentially
consists of captured vehicles.”
The update said, “The failure of Russian crews to destroy intact
equipment before withdrawing or surrendering highlights their poor state of
training and low levels of battle discipline. With Russian formations under
severe strain in several sectors and increasingly demoralized troops, Russia
will likely continue to lose heavy weaponry.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Thursday
that “Since the beginning of October, more than half a thousand square
kilometres have been liberated from the Russian occupiers in the Kherson region
alone.”
In Ukraine on Thursday, a Ukrainian official said Russian shelling struck
residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, killing at least two people.
Oleksandr Starukh, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, posted on
Telegram that five other people were trapped in rubble following the attack.
Ukraine controls the
city, but the Zaporizhzhia region is mostly occupied by Russia.
Russian President
Vladimir Putin signed a law Wednesday declaring Russia was annexing
Zaporizhzhia and three other regions, a move denounced by Ukraine and its
Western partners, as well as the United Nations, as a violation of
international law.
Zaporizhzhia is home
to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and shelling in the area in recent
months has raised international fears of a nuclear disaster.
Rafael Grossi, the
head of the U.N.’s atomic energy agency, is due to visit Kyiv and Moscow this
week for what he said would be important meetings. He said Wednesday that the
need for a protective zone around the power plant is “now more urgent than ever.”
Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Wednesday that his forces had
recaptured Novovoskrysenske, Novohryhorivka and Petropavlivka, three villages
in the Kherson region that was also a part of Russia’s annexation claims.
The gains add to
Ukraine’s recent successes in reclaiming territory from Russia in the
northeastern and southern parts of the country.
Zelenskyy said in his
address that Putin has “already lost,” calling the war the Russian leader
launched in late February “self-destruction of your nation’s every prospect.”
“Ukrainians know what
they fight for,” Zelenskyy said. “And more and more Russian citizens realize
that they must die simply because one single man does not want to stop the
war.”
The head of the U.S.
Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, arrived in Kyiv on
Thursday for what the agency said was a visit to meet with government
officials, farmers, journalists, entrepreneurs and energy workers to discuss
how to more effectively assist the Ukrainian people.
“It is a critical moment
for the Ukrainian people as they defend their freedom from a brutal attack,
liberate occupied land, prepare for winter, and strengthen democratic
institutions & the rule of law,” Power tweeted.
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