The U.S. has received no fresh intelligence indicating that Russian President Vladimir Putin was preparing to act on his threat to use nuclear weapons, U.S. officials said Friday, following unusually sharp comments from President Biden that warned of the “prospect of Armageddon.”
President Biden has evoked the Cuban Missile Crisis when discussing the Russian president’s nuclear threats.
Photo:
Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press
Mr. Biden said late Thursday that Mr. Putin “wasn’t joking” when he threatened nuclear strikes to escalate the war after a weekslong Ukrainian offensive gained significant ground in the east of the country.
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Mr. Biden said at a Democratic fundraiser on Thursday night, suggesting that Mr. Putin could take that step “because his military is—you might say—significantly underperforming.”
Mr. Biden added: “I’m trying to figure out what is Putin’s off-ramp?…Where does he find a way out? Where does he find himself in a position that he does not not only lose face, but lose significant power within Russia?”
White House press secretary
Karine Jean-Pierre
said Friday that Mr. Biden’s comments showed how seriously the administration was taking Mr. Putin’s threats.
A residential building stood in ruins on Friday in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine.
Photo:
yasuyoshi chiba/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
A Ukrainian serviceman explores the site of an attack in the recently liberated town of Lyman, in Ukraine’s…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at WSJ.com: World News…