Use horror weapons and you’ll pay steep price, Biden tells Russia
Russia has been threatened with “catastrophic consequences” if it resorts to using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin has been threatened with “catastrophic consequences” if he uses any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in his invasion of Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden told the G7 summit in Brussels on Friday morning AEDT that “we would respond if he uses it; the nature of the response would depend on nature of the use” and that the decision “would be triggered at the time”.
Mr Biden also flagged fears about global food security and raised ways of ending trade restrictions on sending food abroad, including wheat from major producers, such as the US and Canada. He did not mention Australia, which is also a major wheat producer.
The President revealed he had a “straight-forward conversation” with Chinese President Xi Jinping a week ago and pointed out the economic consequences to the country if it helped Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
“I know how much his interest is in economic relations with Europe and the US and he would put himself in significant jeopardy if he moved forward (helping Russia),” Mr Biden said.
“China understands its economic future is more closely tied to the West than it is to Russia; I am hopeful he doesn’t get engaged.”
NATO leaders earlier announced they would beef up their chemical and nuclear defences and activate additional defences to prepare for any Kremlin escalation of the conflict along the military alliance’s eastern flank in Europe.
NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said if chemical weapons were used they could contaminate territory owned by NATO allies, invoking Article 5, where any attack on one member is an attack on all.
“Any use of chemical weapons will totally change the nature of the conflict with wider consequences. This is a dangerous situation,” he said.
The unprecedented back-to-back meetings of the G7, NATO, the EU in Brusselsunequivocally united in calling for Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
A UN resolution to stop its war on Ukraine immediately and to provide more access to aid and civilian protection in Ukraine received 140 votes in favour and five votes against – Russia, Syria, North Korean, Eritrea and Belarus – while 38 countries abstained.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had been named in Russia as the country’s No. 1 enemy for his galvanising of Western sanctions against Russian individuals and entities, said all G7 and NATO leaders viewed chemical, biological and nuclear weapons with utter horror.
“If Putin engages in anything like that the consequences will very severe. We have some ambiguity about our response, but it would be catastrophic for him, and he understands that,’’ Mr Johnson said.
“Joe Biden was right to warn, because when Russians start saying factories in Ukraine are producing biological weaponry, it’s a prelude to a false-flag operation and they could well do something.
“But it would be a disastrous mistake by Putin.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the NATO leaders for more jets and tanks, but the NATO and G7 have restricted military aid to defensive weapons.
On the ground in Ukraine, long-range Russian strikes on the eastern city of Kharkiv killed at least six civilians and wounded more than a dozen on Thursday, Ukrainian authorities said.
At least four people including two children were killed in strikes elsewhere in the east, Luhansk Governor Sergiy Gayday said, accusing Russian forces of using phosphorus bombs in the village of Rubizhne.
Britain’s ITV network showed footage of the incendiary weapons – which cause horrific burns – dropping in a white haze overnight on the commuter town of Irpin near Kyiv.
Mr Biden, in a separate press conference, said the US had committed over $US2bn in military equipment to Ukraine, and that US-supplied air systems, armour, ammunition and weapons were “being used in Ukraine as I speak”. The US was also supplying more than $US1bn in humanitarian assistance, which would also include food aid. The White House later announced the US would welcome 100,000 of the nearly 3.7 million refugees fleeing the country.
“Putin is banking on NATO being split, he didn’t think we could sustain this cohesion,” he said.
“Putin is getting exactly the opposite of what he intended to have. It is built with the unity of the EU and the G7.”
In Russia, citizens have been feeling the pinch from shortages of goods and the sudden disappearance of Western brands and items such as MasterCard and Visa suspending operations.
with agencies
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