US President Joe Biden expressed skepticism over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks in a speech on Thursday that he has no intention of using a nuclear weapon in Ukraine.
“If he has no intention, why does he keep talking about it? Why is he talking about the ability to use a tactical nuclear weapon?” Biden asked in an interview with NewsNation.
“He’s been very dangerous in the way he’s approached it,” Biden said.
The United States has yet to see any indication that Russia’s annual exercises involving its nuclear forces, called “Grom”, could be a cover for a real organization, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday observed a part of so-called “Grom” exercises by Russia’s strategic nuclear forces, which Moscow said involved Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and Tupolev strategic bomber planes.
The exercises presented a potential challenge for the United States and its allies. Putin has muddy the waters over his real intentions after threatening to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
Western officials, however, expressed confidence in their ability to detect any indications that Russia might be moving to employ such weapons.
Austin showed no concern, in brief comments to reporters on the matter.
“We haven’t seen anything that would make us believe, at this point, that it’s some kind of hedging activity,” Austin said.
With Ukrainian forces advancing into the Russian-occupied Kherson province threatening a major defeat for Moscow, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu called Austin on Sunday to report allegations that Ukraine planned to carry out an attack with a “dirty bomb”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the allegation shows Moscow was planning an attack with an explosive device mixed with radioactive material and tried to blame Kiev.
Austin played down such concerns.
“We haven’t seen anything that indicates that Putin has made the decision to use a dirty bomb, nor have we seen any indication that the Ukrainians are planning such a thing,” Austin said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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