US President Joe Biden has said that the threat of nuclear 'Armageddon' is at its highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
President Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin was 'not kidding when he talked about using tactical nuclear weapons after the setbacks in Ukraine.
He added that the US was "trying to figure out" Russian President Putin's way out of the war.
The United States and the European Union have already said that President Putin's threat of nuclear annihilation should be taken seriously.
However, despite Moscow's threat to use nuclear weapons, US national security adviser Jack Sullivan said last week that the US saw no signs that Russia was preparing to use nuclear weapons immediately.
UN experts review the Zaporizhya nuclear plant occupied by Russian forces
Ukraine, including the four regions that Russia recently illegally annexed, is liberating Russian-occupied territories.
For months, US officials have warned that Russia could resort to using weapons of mass destruction if it suffers a setback on the battlefield.
President Biden said Russian leaders were 'not kidding when they talked about using tactical nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons - 'because their military, you could say, is significantly underperforming—demonstrating'.
"For the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, we are in direct danger of using nuclear weapons, if indeed things continue as they are," Mr. Biden told a few of his fellow Democrats.
"We haven't faced the possibility of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis."
What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?
The 13-day event in October 1962 put the two major superpowers of the time - the Soviet Union and the United States - on a collision course that led to the possibility of nuclear annihilation.
The crisis began when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev broke a promise and installed nuclear weapons in Cuba—targeting Washington, DC, and New York City—the deployment of nuclear weapons to US President John F. Kennedy. It was a big test.
Mr. Kennedy considered a full-scale attack on Cuba, but in practice decided only on a naval blockade, forcing the Soviet Union behind bars to dismantle the missiles and return them to Russia.
