"A Butcher" Biden Calls Putin and The Butcher Threaten to Use Nukes

  

Michael D. ShearReporting from Warsaw

President Biden called President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia “a butcher” in response to a question after meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, including several from the city of Mariupol, which has been flattened by days of shelling from Russian forces.

 

Valerie HopkinsReporting from Lviv, Ukraine

Heavy explosions were heard in Lviv.

 

Russia again says it is willing to use nuclear weapons if its existence is threatened.

 

Dmitri A. Medvedev, former president of Russia, reiterated that Russia is willing to use nuclear weapons if it deemed its existence was threatened.

Dmitri A. Medvedev, former president of Russia, reiterated that Russia is willing to use nuclear weapons if it deemed its existence was threatened . ...Darko Vojinovic/Associated Press

Dmitri A. Medvedev, the former Russian president and vice chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said the country was prepared to use nuclear weapons against the United States and Europe if its existence was threatened, the latest instance of nuclear saber-rattling as Russia faces fierce resistance in Ukraine.

The statement did not go beyond Russia’s previously published doctrine, but it comes as NATO is doubling its troops in Eastern Europe and as President Biden said during a visit to Poland that the United States treated its duty to defend its NATO allies as “a sacred obligation.”

Mr. Medvedev made the remarks to Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency in excerpts from an interview published on Saturday, the same day that Mr. Biden was meeting in Warsaw with the Polish president.

“No one wants war, especially given that nuclear war would be a threat to the existence of human civilization,” Mr. Medvedev said.

“All our people know that the targets of nuclear weapons of NATO countries are facilities on the territory of our country, and our warheads are aimed at targets located in Europe and the United States of America,” Mr. Medvedev added, according to the article. “But that is life. Therefore, one should always think about this and pursue a responsible policy.”

Mr. Medvedev also noted that, as laid out in Russia’s established policy on nuclear deterrence, Russia could use nuclear weapons in response to an attack on Russia or its allies with conventional weapons if “the very existence of the country is threatened.”

Russia’s defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, also mentioned Russia’s nuclear weapons in remarks released on Saturday. He said that “maintaining the military readiness of the strategic nuclear forces” was among the priorities in the defense ministry’s approach to procurement, along with long-distance precision weaponry and aviation equipment. 

Michael D. Shear

Biden stresses the need for ‘a united Europe’ in a meeting with Poland’s president.

 

President  Biden with President Andrzej Duda of Poland, second from left, at the presidential palace in Warsaw on Saturday.

 

WARSAW — President Biden told the Polish president on Saturday that the United States treated its duty to defend its NATO allies as “a sacred obligation” as the two leaders met at Poland’s presidential palace on the third day of Mr. Biden’s wartime diplomatic trip to Europe.

“America’s ability to meet its role in other parts of the world rests upon a united Europe,” Mr. Biden told President Andrzej Duda.

The meeting between the two leaders took place as Mr. Biden prepared to deliver what White House officials said would be a “major speech” on Saturday evening about the need for the world to remain united to confront Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Biden is scheduled to visit later in the afternoon with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw.

Mr. Biden said in his remarks to Mr. Duda that “the most important thing that binds us together is our values.” But while Poland’s right-wing, populist government is being embraced by Washington and Brussels as a lynchpin of Western solidarity and security, it has consistently provoked quarrels with both of them in the past.

Mr. Duda, however, thanked Mr. Biden for the cooperative relationship between Poland and the United States, saying that Poland stood ready as a “serious partner, a credible partner.”

That relationship has been strained in recent weeks as Poland surprised U.S. officials by saying they were willing to provide Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, delivered through a United States military base. The United States quickly rejected that offer.

On Saturday, Mr. Biden repeatedly stressed the need to avoid surprises.

 

Russian soldiers and armored vehicles standing guard in the distance as demonstrators protested in Slavutych, Ukraine, in a picture obtained by Reuters from social media on Saturday. 

Russian forces have entered the city of Slavutych near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine and briefly detained the city’s mayor, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.

Lviv.

 

The city, which was built for evacuees from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, is now home to many of the plant’s workers. Russian forces captured the plant and the exclusion zone around it early in the invasion of Ukraine last month, and the International Atomic Energy Agency warned on Friday that recent intense fighting in the area could jeopardize the workers’ ability to keep the defunct plant safe.

There were reports on Friday that Slavutych, which had a population of about 25,000 before the war, had been shelled by Russian forces who had begun to enter the area. It was not clear on Saturday whether Russian forces fully controlled the city, which is near the Belarusian border in an area that they have mostly held.

An adviser to Ukraine’s president called Slavutych a “hot spot” as Russian forces entered. The adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, said that local residents were “resisting the invaders” as they protested the Russian forces.

Oleksandr Pavliuk, the head of the Kyiv regional military administration, shared images on the Telegram messaging app of a demonstration on Saturday, and videos of the scene showed a crowd of dozens stretching out a flag in the main square outside City Hall and chanting, “Glory to Ukraine.”

Mr. Pavliuk said on Telegram that residents had attended a rally on the square and unfurled a large blue and yellow Ukrainian flag.

Russian fighters fired shots into the air and threw stun grenades at the crowd, Mr. Pavliuk said. But he said they did not disperse the demonstrators, whose numbers continued to grow.

He said that Russian forces had taken the city’s mayor, Yuri Fomichov, a tactic they have used against local leaders in a number of seized areas during the monthlong war. The mayor was released hours later and joined protesters at the rally, Mr. Pavliuk said in a later statement, and video showed.

A video posted from the city by a local journalist showed Mr. Fomichiv addressing the crowd after his release. It wasn’t clear if he was speaking freely. “In captivity, I negotiated with the occupiers,” he said. “It was agreed that if it is confirmed that our military is not in the city, everything will be calm.”

“Slavutych remains under the Ukrainian flag!” he vowed.

 

But he added that Russian forces had instructed people to hand over any weapons, and noted that the national police and the Ukrainian military were no longer in the city, “so we will appoint people on duty to prevent looting, chaos, and disorder.”

The Chernobyl site requires constant maintenance and monitoring of radioactive waste. Because of intense fighting during the war, workers had been unable to safely leave since Russian forces seized the plant in the early days of the invasion, though some technical workers at the plant were able to rotate off their shifts in recent days for the first time in weeks.