President Biden warns Russia against ‘nuclear mistake’

President Biden has told Russia that it would be making an “incredible, serious mistake” if it deployed a nuclear bomb in Ukraine.

Speaking at the White House yesterday, Biden, 79, was asked whether Moscow was planning a so-called false-flag operation in Ukraine.

Russia has claimed that Ukrainian forces are preparing to use a dirty bomb — a conventional bomb that contains radioactive, biological or chemical material — against its forces, something that western governments suspect is a cover for Russia’s own plans.

“Let me just say: Russia would be making an incredible, serious mistake if it were to use a tactical nuclear weapon,” Biden said. “I’m not guaranteeing that it’s a false-flag operation yet. Don’t know, but it would be a serious mistake, a very serious mistake.”

Russia took its case to the UN yesterday, presenting to a closed session of the security council its evidence of what it said were Ukraine’s plans.

 “We’re quite satisfied because we raised the awareness,” Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, told reporters. “I don’t mind people saying that Russia is crying wolf if this doesn’t happen because this is a terrible, terrible disaster that threatens potentially the whole of the Earth.”

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, repeated Russia’s allegations and said the West was foolish to dismiss them. At the weekend Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, made similar claims during a call with Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, and the defence ministers of other western countries, including the US. Britain, the US and France dismissed Moscow’s suggestions as “transparently false”.

James Kariuki, Britain’s deputy UN ambassador, said yesterday: “We’ve seen and heard no new evidence,” referring to Russia’s allegations. “This is pure Russian misinformation of the kind we’ve seen many times before and it should stop.”