For the president of the United States, the world runs the highest risk of nuclear “Armageddon” since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. Joe Biden spoke at a fundraiser in New York, referring to Russia’s war against Ukraine . Russian President Vladimir Putin “is not kidding,” he added, when he talks about potentially using nuclear, biological or chemical weapons “with” his military forces doing significantly wrong, Biden added.
Russia recently annexed four Ukrainian regions, in a move that violated international law, and Putin said Moscow would see Ukrainian attacks on those regions as attacks on Russia itself and use all means to defend them.
Washington has long warned Moscow that the use of nuclear weapons would have serious consequences. The White House, however, has not publicly commented on what these consequences might be. The US government also stated that it has not seen any concrete steps by Russia towards the use of nuclear weapons.
The Cuban Missile Crisis is considered by many to be the most tense period of the Cold War. In October 1962, the US and Soviet superpowers came very close to a nuclear war. The crisis ended when then US President John F. Kennedy promised not to attack Cuba and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev ordered the removal of nuclear weapons from Cuba.
Meanwhile, after a string of recent battlefield defeats, Moscow said Thursday that Russian troops have captured a settlement in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. The village of Zaitseve has come under Russian control, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told Moscow, adding that more than 120 soldiers were killed by the Ukrainian side.
Moscow’s claims could not be independently verified, and Ukraine has not confirmed Zaitseve’s loss.
The Russian military has recently come under considerable criticism at home because Ukraine has quickly gained ground and pushed back the occupation forces in a counter-offensive launched in early September. Russian troops surrendered the strategically important city of Lyman last weekend. Elsewhere, according to Konashenkov, Ukrainian soldiers have repeatedly tried to break through the Russian defensive line in the north of the Kherson region, but were pushed back.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that since the beginning of the month “more than half a thousand square kilometers of land and dozens of settlements have been freed from the fake Russian referendum and stabilized only in the Kherson region”. In his nocturnal speech, Zelensky further stated that Ukrainian forces have also recorded successes “in the eastern direction”.
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