Biden Warns Risk of Nuclear ‘Armageddon’ Closest Since Cuban Missile Crisis, Says Putin is ‘Not Joking’

President Joe Biden cautioned Thursday the world is currently closer to nuclear “armageddon” than at any point since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

The president was speaking at a closed fundraiser for Senate Democrats Thursday evening when he made the comment, according to the Associated Press. The AP reported:

Speaking at a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “a guy I know fairly well” and the Russian leader was “not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons.”

Biden added, “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.” He suggested the threat from Putin is real “because his military is — you might say — significantly underperforming.”

Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine twice recently. The threats come as Russian forces have faced significant losses in men, equipment and territory in recent weeks.

Russia invaded its former Soviet satellite neighbor in February amid claims it sought to free its people from Nazism.

Putin’s forces made quick initial advances but failed to take the capital city of Kyiv. A Ukrainian counteroffensive launched last month pushed Russian units farther back toward their own territory. Russia’s struggling military is now fighting with conscripted soldiers.

Amid widespread anxiety Putin might grow desperate and use tactical nukes on the battlefield, Polish President Andrzej Duda has offered his country as a staging ground for U.S. nuclear weapons.

American officials have expressed no public desire to take Duda up on the offer, which would undoubtedly heighten tensions even further.