US President Joe Biden’s extraordinary Ukraine warning to Vladimir Putin

The US President has issued a startling warning to the Russian President and his government against escalating the war on Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden has issued a startling warning to his Russian counterpart, pleading with the world leader to not use nuclear weapons in his war against Ukraine.

Appearing on 60 Minutes, Mr Biden was asked how he would respond to Vladimir Putin if he said he was considering nuclear warfare.

“Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,” Mr Biden replied.

“You will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II.”

While the US leader wouldn’t expand on what would happen if Russia did resort to atomic weapons, he said the international response would be “consequential”.

“They’ll become more of a pariah in the world than they ever have been,” Mr Biden continued.

“And depending on the extent of what they do will determine what response would occur.”

Ukraine counteroffensive succeeds

This comes as Ukraine has reclaimed ground in its counteroffensive against Russian troops in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Unverified figures shared by a Russian official claimed Ukrainian soldiers outnumbered Russian troops by eight times.

Speaking on the state-owned Rossiya-24, Russian official Vitaly Ganchev said on Monday that “the situation is becoming more difficult by the hour”.

A destroyed building in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces are pushing back on Russian troops. Picture: Juan Barreto / AFP.

However the win has prompted fears of a Russian counter-attack. Speaking to the BBC, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said that while recent events were “extremely encouraging,” he cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

“At the same time, we need to understand that this is not the beginning of the end of war, we need to be prepared for the long haul,” he said.

Zelensky’s plea to international community

While Ukraine has recaptured formerly held Russia towns, the destruction and violence reported from the areas has been confronting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the forest outside the city of Izyum, or Izium, revealed mass graves containing around 450 people. Many of the largely civilian bodies appeared to have been “tortured,” with some appearing to be from “entire families,” he said.

“As of today, there are 450 dead people, buried. But there are others, separate burials of many people. Tortured people. Entire families in certain territories,” said Mr Zelensky on Friday.

Officials dig a grave in a forest on the outskirts of Izyum. Picture: Sergey Bobok/ AFP.

In response, the Ukrainian leader has called on international governments to take action against Russia.

“Russia is a terrorist country. I don’t know why the world is slow to recognise it,” he tweeted on Saturday.

“We liberated Izium. Over 400 graves were found in the forest next to it. How many tortured Ukrainians are there is unknown.

“How many more of our people must die so that all finally figured it out?”