'Real' risk of Vladimir Putin using nuclear weapons, warns Joe Biden

Joe Biden speaks Monday in California, where he warned of the danger of Vladimir Putin's use of nuclear weapons. Credit: AP/Susan Walsh

The threat of Vladimir Putin using tactical nuclear weapons is «real,» Joe Biden said days after condemning the Kremlin's deployment of such devices in Belarus.

On Saturday, the US president called his Russian colleague's statement that Moscow has deployed its first tactical nuclear weapon in Belarus is «absolutely irresponsible.»

«When I was here about two years ago, saying that I was worried about Colorado the river dried up, everyone looked at me like I was crazy,” Biden told a donor group in California on Monday. weapon», but added: «It's real.»

Last week, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that his country has begun receiving Russian tactical nuclear weapons, some of which, he says, are three times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The deployment is Russia's first movement of such warheads — less powerful nuclear weapons with a shorter range that could be used on the battlefield — outside of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

USA. said it did not intend to change its position on strategic nuclear weapons in response to the deployment and saw no sign that Russia was preparing to use nuclear weapons.

In May, Russia rejected Mr. Biden's criticism. about its plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, stating that the US has been deploying such nuclear weapons in Europe for decades.

Russia's deployment is closely monitored by the US and its allies, as well as China. – who repeatedly warned against the use of nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.