Biden Warns Putin’s Nuclear Threat Is “Real”; Moscow launches massive attacks on Ukraine

First modification: 06/20/2023 – 19:02

From possibility among a range of options to “real threat”. Washington warns that the recent transfers of tactical nuclear weapons from Russia to Belarus constitute a serious alert.

This was remarked by the president of the United States, Joe Biden, whose government warned about the start of the war more than a year ago when Moscow moved its troops to the borders with Ukraine, while denying its intentions to launch a conflict, something that ended up materializing. on February 24, 2022.

“When I was here about two years ago saying that I was worried that the Colorado River would dry up, everyone looked at me like I was crazy (…) They looked at me like when I said that I was worried that Putin would use tactical nuclear weapons. It’s real,” Biden told a group of Democratic Party donors in California on Monday.

Although it is not the first time that the leader of the White House points out this eventual scenario, the president indicates that the latest movements between Moscow and Minsk must be taken with greater caution.

Biden’s statements came after the Kremlin and the government of Alexander Lukashenko signed on May 25 an agreement to deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. The invading country threatened to increase its war bet after accusing the West of getting involved “directly and indirectly” in the conflict due to the supply of military equipment with which it supports Kiev.

On June 14, Lukashenko confirmed that his country began to receive these weapons and threatened to enter the war at “any moment.” “We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia (…) The bombs are three times more powerful than those that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Putin’s ally said at the time, in a defiant tone.

It is the first deployment of such warheads outside of Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.

What are tactical nuclear weapons?

Arms control academics and negotiators have spent years arguing over how to define such devices. The clue is in the name: they are nuclear weapons used for specific tactical gains in the military arena.

Although these are elements with less explosive power – compared to strategic nuclear weapons, which are capable of annihilating entire cities – the tactics represent a greater danger than those already used in combat on Ukrainian soil.

Tactical Nuclear Weapons (TNW) are designed for battlefield use and include gravity bombs, short-range missiles, artillery shells, land mines, and torpedoes equipped with nuclear warheads.

These warheads can be delivered via a variety of self-propelled missiles and projectiles from naval, air or ground forces. They could even simply be driven and detonated in a particular area.

The last word on the firing of both tactical and strategic nuclear weapons rests with the Russian president. His procedure would take place through the so-called nuclear briefcase, or Cheget, a communication tool that links the president with senior military commanders and rocket forces through a highly secret electronic command and control network.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov are also believed to possess such briefcases.

An ace that until now has left the largest nuclear power on the planet up its sleeve.

Moscow launches new massive attacks in Ukraine

While the Kremlin continues to consider the option of using tactical nuclear weapons, its military continues to pummel the invaded nation with the launch of explosive missiles and drones.

This Tuesday, the invading troops attacked several cities in the country, including kyiv, the capital, and Lviv, in the west, relatively isolated from the center of the fighting.

In Kherson, in the south of the country, at least one person was killed and seven were injured. The victims were people who worked in the cleanup operations after the humanitarian and environmental catastrophe that caused the rupture of the Nova Kakhovka dam in that region.

“The Russian Army fired on rescue workers in Kherson who were clearing the mud. As a result of the shelling, an employee of the state emergency service was killed and seven more employees were injured. Six are in serious condition,” said the head of the office of the Ukrainian Presidency, Andriy Yermak.

Moscow has not ruled on this accusation.

Meanwhile, in Kiev, the military administration said Russian troops launched a drone attack and said the city’s air defenses detected and shot down about two dozen Iranian-made Shahed drones.

In Lviv, a piece of “critical infrastructure” was hit and set on fire, the city’s military administration stressed, adding that there were no fatalities or injuries.

Airstrike alerts also sounded in Zaporizhia, the southern city where Europe’s largest nuclear plant is located and which has come under heavy attack by Russian artillery in recent days.

With Reuters and local media