Biden: Russia would be making ‘serious mistake’ to use nuclear weapon

US President Joe Biden warned Russia against using a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine as Moscow told a closed UN Security Council session that Washington or Kiev may carry out a false flag operation in the country to frame Russia.

“Russia would be making an incredibly serious mistake for it to use a tactical nuclear weapon,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday. “I’m not guaranteeing you that it’s a false flag operation yet. I don’t know. But it would be a serious, serious mistake.”

Russia has said that Ukraine was preparing to use a “dirty bomb,” which is an explosive device laced with radioactive material.

Russia on Tuesday voiced its concerns to the United Nations Security Council during a closed-door meeting of the 15-member body.

"We're quite satisfied because we raised the awareness," Russia's Deputy US Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters. "I don't mind people saying that Russia is crying wolf if this doesn't happen because this is a terrible, terrible disaster that threatens potentially the whole of the Earth."

Ukraine has denied any attempt to use such a weapon.

“We’ve not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture, nor do we have indications that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons,” Ned Price, a State Department spokesman, said Monday. “But we’ve heard these very concerning statements, and we wanted to send a very clear signal.”

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Meanwhile, Biden has warned of the risk of nuclear "Armageddon".

Biden said earlier this month that the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is at the highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to use the country’s nuclear weapons in face of the Western nuclear aggression.

“This is not a bluff,” Putin said last month. “And those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the weathervane can turn and point towards them.”

Biden said Putin was “a guy I know fairly well” and the Russian leader was “not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons.”

For months, US officials have repeatedly warned of the possibility of Russia using weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine. However, the officials conceded that they have seen no change to Russia's nuclear forces that would require a change in the alert posture of American nuclear forces.

President Putin launched a military operation in Ukraine on Feb. 24, following Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the 2014 Minsk agreements and Moscow’s recognition of the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Putin said earlier that he will “protect our land using all our forces and means at our disposal, and will do everything to ensure people’s security.

US will be the first country to pull the nuclear trigger: Academic

The United States will be the first country to pull the nuclear trigger, an American academic and political commentator has warned.

An American academic and political commentator has warned that the United States will be the first country to pull the nuclear trigger. 

Daniel Kovalik, an academic at the University of Pittsburgh, said in an interview with Press TV: “It is my sincere fear that nuclear war is now a very real possibility, but it is my belief that it is the US which will be the first country to pull the trigger.  All of this talk about Russia possibly using nuclear weapons is based upon the great misrepresentation of Putin’s words and in fact, represents the US’s projection of its own intentions upon Russia." 

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