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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <a
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href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/world/europe/biden-armageddon-nuclear-war-risk.html">nytimes.com</a>
<h1 class="reader-title">Biden Says Risk of Nuclear ‘Armageddon’
Is Highest Since 1962 Crisis</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Katie Rogers, David E.
Sanger</div>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">4-5 minutes</div>
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<p><span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/section/world/europe">Europe</a></span><span>|</span><span>Biden
calls the ‘prospect of Armageddon’ the highest since
the Cuban missile crisis.</span></p>
<div>
<p><span><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/world/europe/biden-armageddon-nuclear-war-risk.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/world/europe/biden-armageddon-nuclear-war-risk.html</a></span></p>
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<h2 data-testid="headline">Biden calls the ‘prospect
of Armageddon’ the highest since the Cuban missile
crisis.</h2>
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<figure aria-label="media" role="group">
<div><picture><source media="(max-width: 599px)
and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width:
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media="(max-width: 599px) and
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media="(max-width: 599px) and
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599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio:
1),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution:
1dppx),(max-width: 599px) and
(min-resolution: 96dpi)"><img alt="President
Biden boarding Marine One in New York City
on Thursday night. “We are trying to figure
out: What is Putin’s off ramp?” he said at a
fund-raiser there."
src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/11/06/world/06ukraine-briefing-biden-comments/merlin_214460187_992dd641-ba7d-44be-885b-5575bf10255f-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale"
class="moz-reader-block-img" width="600"
height="400"></picture></div>
<figcaption><span><span>Credit...</span><span><span
aria-hidden="false">Erin Schaff/The New
York Times</span></span></span></figcaption></figure>
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<ul>
<li><time datetime="2022-10-06T22:33:53-04:00"><span>Oct.
6, 2022</span></time></li>
</ul>
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<p>President Biden delivered a striking warning on
Thursday night that recent threats from President
Vladimir V. Putin of Russia could devolve into a
nuclear conflict, telling supporters at a
fund-raiser in New York City that the risk of
atomic war had not been so high since the 1962
Cuban Missile Crisis.</p>
<p>“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon
since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Mr.
Biden told a crowd at the second of two
fund-raisers he attended on Thursday evening.</p>
<p>“We are trying to figure out: What is Putin’s off
ramp?” Mr. Biden said, adding: “Where does he find
a way out? Where does he find himself where he
does not only lose face but significant power?”</p>
<p>Mr. Biden’s references to Armageddon were highly
unusual for any American president. Since the
Cuban Missile Crisis, 60 years ago this month,
occupants of the Oval Office have rarely spoken in
such grim tones about the possible use of nuclear
weapons, much less talked openly about “off
ramps.”</p>
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<p>The president’s warnings, delivered bluntly to a
group of Democratic donors rather than in a more
formal setting, came as <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/us/politics/russia-tactical-nuclear-weapons.html"
title="">analysts in Washington have been
debating whether Mr. Putin might resort to
tactical nuclear weapons</a> to counter his
mounting military losses in Ukraine.</p>
<p>In an angry and fiery speech last week, Mr. Putin
raised the specter of using nuclear weapons to
hold on to his territorial gains, which Ukraine’s
powerful counteroffensives have begun to erode.
Mr. Putin said he would use “all available means”
to defend Russian territory — which he has
declared now includes <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/world/europe/putin-annexation-ukraine-russia.html"
title="">four provinces of eastern Ukraine that
Russia illegally annexed</a> in recent days.</p>
<p>The atomic bombs the United States dropped on
Japan in 1945, Mr. Putin said in that speech, had
“created a precedent.”</p>
<p>His remarks and others by top Russian leaders
represent the first time since 1962 that Moscow
officials have made explicit nuclear threats.</p>
<p>Officials in Washington have been gaming out
scenarios in which Mr. Putin might decide to use a
tactical nuclear weapon to make up for the
failings of Russian troops in Ukraine. In late
February, Mr. Putin <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/27/us/politics/putin-nuclear-alert-biden-deescalation.html"
title="">called for his nuclear forces to go on
alert</a>, but there has been no evidence that
they did so.</p>
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<div>
<p>Contrary to Mr. Biden’s comparison, American
officials say they do not believe this moment is
as fraught as the Cuban Missile Crisis, during
which Mr. Kennedy declared a quarantine of Cuba to
stop the delivery of nuclear weapons to the
island. The chances of Mr. Putin using an atomic
weapon remain low, they have said.</p>
<p>But they are clearly worried that Russian
military doctrine treats tactical weapons as a
potential element of conflict between ground
forces. And it was that doctrine that Mr. Biden
indicated he is most concerned about, because of
the chances of rapid escalation.</p>
<p>Tactical weapons come in many sizes and
varieties, most with a small fraction of the
destructive power of the bombs the United States
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But
they are hard to use and are difficult to control.
On Thursday, Mr. Biden said he did not think it
would be possible for Russia to use a tactical
weapon and “not end up with Armageddon.”</p>
<p>“We’ve got a guy I know fairly well,” Mr. Biden
said of Mr. Putin at the fund-raiser. “He’s not
joking when he talks about potential use of
tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical
weapons because his military is you might say
significantly underperforming.”</p>
<p>In late September, Mr. Biden’s national security
adviser, Jake Sullivan, said that any nuclear
weapon use <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/25/us/politics/us-russia-nuclear.html"
title="">would result in “catastrophic
consequences</a>” for Russia, adding that in
private communications with Moscow, the United
States had “spelled out” how America and the world
would react.</p>
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