President Joe Biden assured Monday that Americans should not feel threatened by Moscow's announcement to put its nuclear forces on high alert amid the invasion of Ukraine.
Journalists approached the president at the White House after a Black History Month event and asked if Russian President Vladimir Putin's remarks should cause any concern.
“No”
,
was President Biden's response.
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Over the weekend, the Biden administration said Putin's choice to put his forces on alert was "unnecessary" and escalated tensions.
Officials also stressed that Putin was not under any threat from the United States, NATO or Ukraine.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told NBC News on Sunday that
Putin "is fabricating threats that don't exist to justify further aggression."
US President Joe Biden speaks during the Black History Month celebration in the East Room of the White House.Bloomberg via Getty Images
Putin on Sunday ordered his defense minister and army chief of staff to put the nuclear deterrent forces on a "special combat duty regime."
The order means that Putin wants Russia's nuclear weapons to be ready for launch.
What does the maximum alert imply?
The possibility of the activation of Russian nuclear weapons has raised doubts and concerns about the scope of the invasion and Putin's objectives.
[Where will Putin stop? Eastern Europe holds its breath as Ukraine endures Russian invasion]
The United States and Russia have the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world, both countries have weapons that can be launched by aircraft, submarines and ground-based ballistic missiles.
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Less than a year ago, in the middle of the Geneva summit, Putin and Biden issued a statement implying that a nuclear threat was left over from the Cold War period.
"Nuclear war cannot be won and should never be waged,"
the leaders said.
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The last time such weapons were used in combat was when the United States bombed Japan twice in August 1945.
The Soviet Union successfully tested its first bomb in 1949.
Putin's threat is not a surprise and should be taken seriously, Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, told The Associated Press.
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"Inserting nuclear weapons into the Ukraine war equation at this time is extremely dangerous, and the United States, President Biden and NATO must exercise extreme restraint," Kimball said.
The activation of the maximum alert to the nuclear forces, according to the nuclear doctrine of the United States, enables a response with little notice, that is, it warns the enemy that in the event of a threat or attack, he is facing a response that could represent a incalculable impact.
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In addition to his strategic nuclear force, Putin has at least a couple thousand so-called non-strategic nuclear weapons, such as shorter-range cruise and ballistic missiles.
They are called non-strategic because they cannot reach US territory.
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Some US officials have warned for years that if Putin sees any risk of losing a war, Europe could resort to the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons as a way to end the conflict on its own terms.
With information from
NBC News
and
The Associated Press
