Nuclear strike would be an ‘incredibly serious mistake’, Biden warns Russia

Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of attempting to use ‘dirty bomb’

Russia would make an “incredibly serious mistake” if it used a tactical nuclear weapon in the war against Ukraine, Joe Biden has warned Moscow amid concerns of a false flag operation to escalate attacks.

Washington and western allies have raised renewed and urgent concerns over Russia using a pretext to unleash a nuclear weapon in the war.

Mr Biden, who received an updated Covid booster shot on Tuesday in the White House, was asked by reporters whether he thought the Kremlin could use a “dirty bomb attack” as a false flag operation to escalate war.

“I spent a lot of time today talking about that,” Mr Biden responded.

“Let me just say: Russia would be making incredibly serious mistake for it to use a tactical nuclear weapon,” he added.

“I’m not guaranteeing you that it’s a false-flag operation yet; I don’t know. But it would be a serious, serious mistake.”

Moscow earlier levelled a series of accusations, telling the UN Security Council (UNSC) that Ukrainian forces have planned to detonate a “dirty bomb” in the war zone to blame Russian forces, a claim the west and Ukraine have rejected for lack of evidence.

The UNSC conducted a closed door session to discuss Russia’s claims, which were first made public on Sunday, after the latter said Kyiv was planning to use a dirty bomb, a reference for conventional high explosives used to spread radioactive material into the air and contaminate the surrounding area.

“Ukraine has all the reasons to do so because we know that Zelensky regime wants to avoid first of all defeat, secondly wants to involve Nato in a direct clash with Russia,” Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dimitry Polyanskiy said.

The comments triggered a counter exchange of accusations, with Mr Zelensky saying Russia’s allegation suggested it was the Kremlin that could use a nuclear weapon to blame Ukraine.

The White House on Monday said it did not currently see any evidence to indicate the use of any such weapon by Russia, but said it was “monitoring as best we can”.

“If an actor wanted to do a dirty bomb attack, a lot of our ability to detect would be determined by a range of factors, including the length of time that the perpetrator was going to prepare for or the communications that would be involved in doing that, and size and location,” said John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council.

Ned Price, a State Department spokesman said: “We’ve not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture, nor do we have indications that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons.”

“But we’ve heard these very concerning statements, and we wanted to send a very clear signal.”

Ukraine said Vladimir Putin’s forces are now digging in for the “heaviest of battles” in the strategic southern city of Kherson, which was illegally claimed by Russia in a sham referendum last month.

“With Kherson everything is clear. The Russians are replenishing, strengthening their grouping there,” said Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Mr Zelensky.

“It means that nobody is preparing to withdraw. On the contrary, the heaviest of battles is going to take place for Kherson.”