President Biden: Nuclear 'Armageddon' threat highest since Cuban Missile Crisis

US President Joe Biden has said the world is facing the biggest threat of nuclear “Armageddon” since the days of President Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Speaking at a Democratic Party fundraiser in New York, his ‘off camera’ comments were overheard by journalists from the White House pool.

It comes as Russian officials warned of the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons after suffering huge military setbacks in the invasion of Ukraine.

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Describing Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Biden said he had “got to know the guy pretty well”.

“He’s not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is you might say significantly underperforming.”

And he made clear his concerns that if such weapons were deployed it would quickly escalate into world nuclear conflict.

“First time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have a direct threat of the use nuclear weapon if in fact things continue down the path they are going,” he said.

“I’m trying to figure out what is Putin’s off-ramp?” he said. “Where does he find a way out? Where does he find himself in a position that he does not only lose face but lose significant power within Russia?

“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis.”

He added: “I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily (use) a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon.”

During the 1962 crisis, the United States under President John Kennedy and the Soviet Union under Nikita Kruschev came close to using nuclear weapons over the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba.

What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?

The Cuban Missile Crisis is considered the closest the world has ever come to nuclear annihilation.

The 13-day showdown in 1962 came after the US discovered the Soviet Union had secretly deployed nuclear weapons to Cuba.

Responding to the presence of American ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey, as well as the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961, Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev agreed to place missiles on the island.

In response, then-US president John F Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine of the island to prevent further missiles from being delivered.

After several days of tension, Mr Kennedy and Mr Kruschev reached an agreement for the Soviet Union to dismantle their weapons in Cuba in exchange for Mr Kennedy to declare the US would not invade Cuba again.

The US also secretly agreed to dismantle all of its medium-range ballistic missiles in Turkey.

It also resulted in the establishment of the Moscow-Washington hotline to allow direct communication between the two superpowers.

US officials have warned for the last few months about the prospect of Russia using weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine after numerous strategic setbacks on the battlefield.

Mr Putin has repeatedly alluded to using his country’s vast nuclear arsenal.

Last month, when he announced plans to conscript Russian men to serve in Ukraine, he said: “I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction … and when the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal.”

With a lingering stare at the camera, he added: “It’s not a bluff.”

On Thursday Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Mr Putin understood the “world will never forgive” a Russian nuclear strike.

“He understands that after the use of nuclear weapons he would be unable anymore to preserve, so to speak, his life, and I’m confident of that,” Mr Zelenskyy said.