Biden rejects Russia's threats and assures the UN that a nuclear war "cannot be won"

US President Joe Biden issued a harsh warning on Wednesday against Russia and its "irresponsible" threats to resort to atomic weapons in Ukraine.

“No nuclear war must be fought, no nuclear war can be won”, he stressed to world leaders in his address from the podium at the 77th United Nations General Assembly.

The speech, a summary of US foreign policy, was dominated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine —"unprovoked" and "unnecessary", he insisted—, which has led to nearly 40 member countries of the United Nations providing economic assistance or military to the Government in kyiv.

“A permanent member of the United Nations Security Council has invaded his neighbor, he has tried to wipe a sovereign state off the map.

Russia has blatantly violated the most fundamental principles of the founding Charter of the UN,” the US president insisted.

If the week of debates of leaders from around the world at the United Nations headquarters in New York has the war in Ukraine as the main issue, this Wednesday the agenda was completely dominated by the conflict.

After Biden's appearance, the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelensky, plans to intervene in the evening session via video, after express authorization from the member countries.

His speech comes just hours after, in a speech to his nation, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization of up to 300,000 reservists —thus precipitating the exhaustion of some plane journeys to leave the country— and given his support to the holding of independence referendums this weekend in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

The Kremlin resident has also raised, leaving no room for doubt, the possibility of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine: "in the face of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country, to protect Russia and our people, of course we will use all means at our disposal.

"It's not a bluff," he stressed.

Putin's reaction comes amid a major Ukrainian counteroffensive that has allowed kyiv to reclaim part of the territory that Russian troops had seized from it.

“No one threatened Russia”

In his speech to the General Assembly, Biden has dismissed the Russian claims.

“The world must take these outrageous acts for what they are.

Putin maintains that he had to act like this because Russia was threatened, but no one had threatened Russia, and no one other than Russia sought a conflict”.

With its attack, he insisted, Moscow seeks to "pulverize Ukraine's right to exist."

He referred, as an example, to the destruction of schools, hospitals or train stations, and recalled the discovery of mass graves in which corpses with signs of torture have been found.

The US president called on UN member states to hold Moscow accountable for its "atrocities and war crimes."

“Because if nations can try to achieve their imperial ambitions without suffering consequences, we endanger everything we stand for [in the United Nations],” he argued.

The United States has wanted to reinforce its attention on the problem of food insecurity.

After co-chairing on Tuesday, together with countries like Spain, a forum specifically dedicated to this issue, the White House announced this Wednesday an aid of 2,900 million dollars to alleviate the crisis.

In his speech, the US president also alluded to one of the recurring issues in the General Assembly this year: the demands for a reform of the multilateral system that gives more voice to emerging countries.

Biden has declared himself willing to introduce changes in the Security Council, the governing body of the UN and whose five permanent members – the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom – have the right to veto resolutions.

Biden, who declared himself against the use of this right, was willing to expand the format of the Security Council to allow access as permanent or non-permanent members of more nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

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