Joe Biden issued a firm warning that Vladimir Putin’s threats of using tactical nuclear weapons is very “real” on Monday.
The Russian president has alluded to using his country’s supply of nuclear weapons regularly since launching the invasion of Ukraine last year.
He usually makes the threat when Ukraine’s Western allies renew their support for the beleaguered country by offering more equipment, training or hefty funds.
But, this time, the US president has said his Russian counterpart has done something “absolutely irresponsible” with his nuclear power.
Speaking to a group of donors in California, Biden said: “When I was out here about two years ago saying I worried about the Colorado river drying up, everybody looked at me like I was crazy.”
The water in the Colorado River, near the US-Mexico border, is drying up, putting local communities at risk.
The US president continued: “They looked at me like when I said I worry about Putin using tactical nuclear weapons. It’s real.”
His words came after Russia began to deploy its nuclear weapons to neighbouring Belarus, which is closer to the rest of Europe than Russia, bordering Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
Last week, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko claimed he had already started to take delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons – these are shorter-range and usually less powerful than the ones expected to be used on the battlefield or used to destroy cities.
But, he claimed that among this haul there were nukes which were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The relocation of such weapons is the first time Moscow has moved warheads out of Russia since the Soviet Union fell in 1991 – which is why many around the world are nervously watching what happens with this nuclear supply next.
Despite Biden’s comments, the US has made it clear it does not plan to respond to the deployment by altering its own stance on strategic nuclear weapons.
It also claims that it has seen no signs Russia is looking to use a nuclear weapon.
Biden criticised the plan to move tactical weapons into Belarus last month, and the States suggested the world faced the most serious nuclear danger since the 19652 Cuban missile crisis.
But, the Kremlin shot back by pointing out that the US has been using Europe as a base for similar weapons since the 1950s.
The Russian embassy in the US said: “It is the sovereign right of Russia and Belarus to ensure their security by means we deem necessary amidst of a large-scale hybrid war unleashed by Washington against us.
“The measures we undertake are fully consistent with our international legal obligations.”
It added that “before blaming others, Washington could use some introspection”.
The organisation continued: “The United States has been for decades maintaining a large arsenal of its nuclear weapons in Europe. Together with its NATO allies it participates in nuclear sharing arrangements and trains for scenarios of nuclear weapons use against our country.”
Russia has regularly presented itself as just a reactive force in the face of Western aggression and expansion via NATO.