Biden says risk of "Armageddon" highest since Cuban Missile Crisis as tensions rise with Russia

President Biden said Thursday the risk of "Armageddon" is at the highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, as Russian officials allude to the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons after suffering massive setbacks in Ukraine.

"We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis," Mr. Biden said at a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. 

"We've got a guy I know fairly well," he later said of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "He's not joking when he talks about the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons, or biological or chemical weapons, because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming." 

U.S. officials have warned for months of the prospect that Russia could use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine, as it has faced a series of strategic setbacks on the battlefield, though Mr. Biden's remarks marked the starkest warnings yet issued by the U.S. government about the nuclear stakes. As recently as this week, though, U.S. officials have said they have seen no change to Russia's nuclear forces that would require a change in the alert posture of U.S. nuclear forces.