The White House
said Friday that the US government has no indication to say Russia may imminently
use nuclear weapons. The statement comes a day after United States President
Joe Biden said the US faces its biggest threat of nuclear Armageddon since
Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Talking about
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden said Thursday: “He’s not joking
when he talks about the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons, or
biological or chemical weapons, because his military is, you might say,
significantly underperforming.”

White House Press
Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday that the president was “speaking about
concerns about Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons.” “We have not seen any
reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture. Nor do we have indications
that Russia is preparing to imminently use nuclear weapons,” she said.

Senior US government
officials have told the media that they thought Biden was speaking ‘frankly’
and that the threat of nuclear war has existed for some time now.

Officials in the
US have been warning of potential use of nuclear weapons by Russia for months
at a time when Kremlin has been facing a series of setbacks. Joe Biden’s
remarks were perhaps the starkest warnings of the US government about nuclear
stakes.

Reacting to
President Biden’s comments, Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian
Federation said Biden’s warning was “an appeal to start yet another world war
with unpredictable and monstrous consequences,” a Russian state-owned news
agency reported.

Russia launched
what it calls a ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine on February 24 this
year. Initially, Ukrainians were having a hard time dealing with Moscow’s onslaught.
However, recently, especially since the Ukrainians ousted the Russians from
Kyiv, the war has started to chart a different course.

Ukrainians not
only managed to recover in Kyiv, but have also made significant forays in its
East where Moscow soldiers have had to move away. There are also reports that
Ukrainian soldiers are making headway in the south. Meanwhile, the Russian
military’s morale is down, US-based news networks say. A few days ago, Putin
called for a ‘partial mobilisation’ for Russia in a bid to bolster the troops.
Nearly 300,000 new soldiers were expected to join the war effort.