After condemning Russia’s deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, President Joe Biden stated on Monday that Putin’s use of such weapons is “real.”
Biden described Putin’s Saturday statement that Russia has deployed its first tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus as “absolutely irresponsible.”
“When I was out here about two years ago saying I worried about the Colorado river drying up, everybody looked at me like I was crazy,” Biden told California donors on Monday.
“They stared at me like when I worried about Putin utilizing tactical nuclear weapons. “Real,” Biden remarked.
Last Monday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that his country has begun receiving Russian tactical nuclear weapons three times more destructive than the atomic bombs detonated on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Russia’s first deployment of such warheads—shorter-range, less destructive nuclear weapons that could be deployed on the battlefield—outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
After the deployment, the U.S. has not observed any signs that Russia is poised to unleash a nuclear weapon.
Russia dismissed Biden’s criticism of its proposal to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus in May, claiming the U.S. has done so for decades in Europe.
The U.S., its allies, and China, which have warned against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, are keenly monitoring the Russian deployment.
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