Biden says Americans should not be worried about nuclear war amid Putin threats

Comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin put nuclear forces on alert.

(Getty Images)

President Biden said definitively that Americans need not worry about the threat of nuclear war as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine persists.

A reporter asked Mr Biden on Monday if Americans should “be worried about nuclear war”.

“No,” Mr Biden responded.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said

“We are assessing President Putin’s directive and at this time we see no reason to change our own alert levels,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday, which State Department spokesman Ned Price also echoed.

“We are assessing President Putin's directive at this time, as I think you have heard us say we see no reason to change our own alert levels,” Mr Price said.

Mr Biden’s words comes less than a week into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that Russia’s nuclear forces were being put “on alert”, which he said was in response to “aggressive statements” by Nato.

The concern comes as the United States and its allies have taken aggressive actions against Russia since the invasion. A senior administration official outlined the United States’ sanction of the Russian Central Bank in a background press call.

“It takes trust and solidarity to sanction the central bank of a one and a half trillion-dollar economy, multiples larger than Iran’s or Venezuela’s,” a senior administration official told reporters. “The ruble is in free fall, and soon you’ll see inflation spike and economic activity contract. This is a vicious feedback loop that's triggered by Putin’s own choices and accelerated by his own aggression.”

The announcement comes as the United States has already moved to sanction multiple Russian banks and took extraordinary measures to weaken the nation’s economy.

But Mr Biden has said that the United States would not commit ground troops to the fight against Russia. The US has also rebuffed Ukraine’s request for a no-fly zone, noting that such a move would amount to a pretext to US military combat in Ukraine.