Joe Biden says Putin is waiting to use chemical weapons on Ukraine

Joe Biden says Putin is waiting to use chemical weapons on Ukraine. 

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said that Russian assertions that Kyiv has biological and chemical weapons are baseless and show that Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering deploying them in his fight against Ukraine.

Putin’s “back is against the wall,” Biden said at a Business Roundtable event, “and now he’s talking about new false flags he’s setting up, including alleging that we in America have biological and chemical weapons in Europe, which is just not true.”

“They also claim that Ukraine is armed with biological and chemical weapons. So that’s a clear indication he’s thinking of employing both of them.” A request for comment from the Russian embassy in Washington was not immediately returned.

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The remarks matched previous statements by US and partner officials accusing Russia of disseminating an unverified notion that Ukraine had a biological weapons program as a possible prelude to launching its own physical or chemical attacks.

Russia’s defense ministry has accused Kyiv of plotting a chemical strike on its people, without giving evidence, to accuse Moscow of employing chemical weapons in the invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24.

Jake Sullivan, the US national security advisor, talked with Nikolay Patrushev, the Russian Security Council secretary, earlier this month, warning him of the repercussions of “any hypothetical Russian decision to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.”

The White House did not elaborate on these ramifications. Russia’s incursion, which it describes as a “special military operation” aimed at disarming Ukraine, has mostly stagnated, failing to conquer any major cities but wreaking havoc on civilian regions.

Ukraine said on Monday that it would not heed Russian ultimatums to abandon defending besieged Mariupol, where Russian bombardments have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians.