Putin’s nuclear threat brings world closer to ‘Armageddon’
Interational Desk//
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine has brought the world closer to “Armageddon” than at any time since the Cold-War Cuban Missile Crisis, US President Joe Biden has said.
With his seven-month invasion unravelling, Putin celebrated his 70th birthday yesterday with fawning praise from some officials but little public fuss. That was a contrast to just a week ago when he staged a huge concert on Red Square to proclaim the annexation of nearly a fifth of Ukrainian land.
In a clear repudiation of Putin’s record, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Russia’s most prominent human rights group, Memorial, which Moscow shut down over the past year. A Ukrainian human rights group and a jailed campaigner against abuses by the pro-Russian government in Belarus were also awarded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv’s forces were swiftly recapturing more territory, including more than 500 sq km in the south where they burst through a second major front this week.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov yesterday called on Russian troops to lay down their arms, promising them “life and safety.”
Biden said the prospect of defeat could make Putin desperate enough to use nuclear weapons, the biggest risk since US President John Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev faced off over missiles in Cuba in 1962, reports Reuters.
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” Biden said in New York late on Thursday.
In the northeastern Kharkiv region where Ukrainian forces regained a large swathe of ground in September, the bodies of 534 civilians including 19 children were found after Russian troops left, Serhiy Bolvinov of the National Police in Kharkiv told a briefing posted online Thursday.
The death toll from Thursday’s alleged Russian attack in Zaporizhzhia city has risen to 11 people, according to Ukrainian officials who say civilians were among the dead.
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