Biden appeals to Putin: nuclear strike?
"Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it"
Created: 09/18/2022, 04:50
By: Hannes Niemeyer
How far will Vladimir Putin go?
US President Joe Biden has now revealed how he would react to a nuclear strike by Russia in the Ukraine war.
War diplomacy in the news ticker.
Putin
threatens nuclear weapons
US President
Joe Biden
reveals how he would react
This
news ticker on international diplomacy in the Ukraine war
is constantly updated.
You can read more about the background to the conflict here.
Update from September 17, 10:50 p.m
.: The federal government has allowed Ukraine to buy German-made howitzers.
"We can confirm that a license has been granted to export 18 RCH-155 howitzers," a government spokesman said on Saturday.
However, the delivery of the industry or the necessary financial resources for the upgrading aid still require the approval of the German Bundestag.
"Appropriate applications are being processed".
According to information from
Welt am Sonntag
, these are RCH-155 howitzers that Kiev has ordered from the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) armaments company.
Their total value is therefore 216 million euros.
The big but: The first copies of the RCH-155 would be ready for delivery after 30 months at the earliest, the paper reported.
KMW therefore only wants to start production when there is a clear signal from the federal government that the weapons can be exported to Ukraine.
Update from September 17, 7:05 p.m
.: Vladimir Putin is currently ensnaring Turkey around Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdogan (see first report).
The attempts to flirt from Russia now seem to be answered.
NATO member Turkey wants to join the Shanghai group around Russia and China.
Erdogan told Turkey's state-run Anadolu News Agency that Turkey intends to discuss the goal of membership at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting in India next year.
Turkey has "historical and cultural" connections to the Asian continent and wants to play a role in the organization, whose members together make up "30 percent of global economic output," Erdogan said.
Turkey is currently listed as a dialogue partner by the Shanghai organization.
In the event of accession, Turkey would be the first member of the group to also belong to the western defense alliance NATO.
Established in 2001 to fight terrorism, the group includes China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Nuclear strike by Putin in the Ukraine war?
how would US President Joe Biden react?
First report from September 17th
: Washington DC – While Vladimir Putin raves about Erdogan and practices political solidarity with China, a turnaround is taking place in the fighting in the Ukraine war.
In a counter-offensive, the Ukrainians are recapturing a number of places, especially in the Kharkiv region - also thanks to a "game changer" from Germany.
also read
Ukraine counter-offensive: front-line officer and experts declare “game changers” from Germany
Next scandal on Russian TV: Expert calls on Putin to plan a nuclear strike
Nevertheless, in view of the new developments, the question often arises: How far will Vladimir Putin go?
A question that becomes more explosive the more the Kremlin boss has his back against the wall.
Recently, Russian politicians have even publicly criticized Putin, and the tone of Russian state propaganda is becoming harsher.
The most drastic step that Putin could take is the use of nuclear weapons in the armed conflict.
Confidants of the President, such as Dmitry Medvedev, have frequently threatened the use of such weapons in the media.
What if it really did come to that and Putin was contemplating a nuclear strike or the use of chemical weapons?
US President Joe Biden had to ask himself this question.
Will Vladimir Putin launch a nuclear attack?
Joe Biden is concerned.
© IMAGO/Pete Marovich - Pool via CNP
Nuclear threats in war: "Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it," Biden told Putin
Biden was asked about it in an interview on CBS television.
His reaction to possible Russian plans for a nuclear strike was quite clear.
"Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it," Joe Biden told Putin.
According to the US President, such an attack would change the face of the war in a way that has not been seen since World War II.
In addition to his urgent warning, Biden has already spoken about the consequences that would threaten Vladimir Putin's plan of this kind.
Moscow would "become even more of an outsider than ever before," Biden said in the interview.
In this case, the US President announced a tough reaction from Washington.
Visits to Ukraine during the war - Politics shows solidarity
View photo gallery
nuclear weapons?
"I think that's relatively unlikely"
According to some military experts, the use of nuclear weapons is not (yet) to be expected.
"I think that's relatively unlikely," says military expert Gustav Gressel in an interview with our editors.
"A tactical nuclear weapon would change little at the front, if only because the Ukrainian military is organized in a relatively decentralized manner." Gressel believes that Putin would not have stopped the recent Kharkiv offensive with a nuclear weapon.
"It would have taken ten or twenty such bombs for that."
Carlo Masala from the Bundeswehr University does not fear the use of nuclear weapons either.: "Of course there is always this theoretical option of using chemical or nuclear weapons in the background," said the military expert to the
Business Insider
portal .
"At the moment I think that's very unlikely."
Meanwhile, Russia recently experienced quite a disgrace in the Kharkiv region from the Ukraine counter-offensive.
Russian troops are said to have almost fled the region.
The Kremlin now apparently wants to take Putin out of the line of fire.
(han/AFP)