Even as the Russian leader continues escalating the Ukraine conflict, U.S. President Joe Biden said he doesn’t believe Russian President Vladimir Putin would use nuclear weapons despite several threats.
In a Tuesday interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Biden said, “Well, I don’t believe he will. But I think that his discussion of it is reckless.
Putin has suggested using nuclear weapons subtly. He declared a partial military mobilization and promised to “surely employ all available measures to safeguard Russia and our people” in a September speech on television. But, he said, “I’m not bluffing.”
Although the White House has repeatedly repeated that it takes Russia’s nuclear war threats seriously, there are currently no signs of such a danger. Nevertheless, on Thursday, Biden expressed concern about the “prospect of Armageddon” if Russia used nuclear weapons.
When referring to his earlier remarks, Biden stated on Tuesday, “The whole point I was making was, it may lead to a dreadful end.” “And not because anybody wants to start a global conflict or anything, but… after you deploy a nuclear bomb, the errors and miscalculations may occur. Who knows what could happen?
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According to Biden, Putin is a “logical actor who dramatically misjudged.”
He said that he thinks Putin has committed war crimes in Ukraine and underlined that although he thinks Putin is sensible, he doesn’t think Putin’s goals are.
“He behaved violently. He may have committed war crimes, I believe.
Regarding Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden said: “I believe he believed he would be welcomed with open arms. He would be accepted because there was, and always has been, Mother Russia’s and Kyiv’s home.”
“I believe he just misjudged it completely,”
Leaders of the Group of 7 pledged to support the beleaguered nation against Russian assault for “as long as it takes” after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday morning.
G-7 leaders said that if Russia uses chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons, it will suffer “grave repercussions” in a public statement after the summit.
In an interview with CNN, Biden said he had no plans to meet with Putin at the forthcoming G-20 conference. However, he would be willing to do so if the Russian leader contacted him about freeing imprisoned American Brittney Griner.
The G-7 earlier on Tuesday agreed that Ukrainian officials must be present for any discussion with Putin involving Ukraine.