KYIV, Oct 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he doubted whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would use a tactical nuclear weapon as Ukraine pleaded for a rapid increase in Western military aid to defend against missile strikes on its cities.
Explosions rocked the Russian-occupied southern towns of Kherson and Melitopol and air raid sirens blared over Kyiv, two days after Russia unleashed a barrage of missiles on Ukrainian towns in a major escalation of the conflict.
Russian Pesident Vladimir Putin, under domestic pressure to ramp up the war as his forces have lost ground since early September, ordered Monday’s missile strikes in response to an alleged Ukrainian attack on Russia’s bridge to annexed Crimea last weekend.
In recent weeks, Moscow moved to annex new tracts of Ukraine after referendums widely denounced as illegal, mobilised hundreds of thousands of Russians to fight, and repeatedly threatened to use nuclear arms, stoking alarm in the West.
Putin is a “rational actor who has miscalculated significantly,” Biden said in a CNN interview.
Asked how realistic he believed it would be for Putin to use a tactical nuclear weapon, Biden responded: “Well, I don’t think he will.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday the military alliance has not noticed any change in Russia’s nuclear posture following the threats.
Ukraine’s military said its forces drove Russian troops out of several settlements near the Russian-occupied town of Beryslav in the Kherson region.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts in Kherson or Melitopol which were reported by Russian media.
Also in the south, Russian missiles destroyed buildings in the Zaporizhzhia region overnight but there were no reports of casualties, regional Governor Oleksandr Starukh said on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
Air raid sirens sounded over Kyiv for a third consecutive day, even as residents cleaned up after Monday’s strikes.
“It is not that they are fighting the military, they are just driven by the desire to destroy, destroy, to destroy us,” said Yulia Datsenko, a 38-year-old paramedic, as she surveyed the damage to her apartment.
Monday’s attacks killed 19 people, wounded more than 100 and knocked out power across the country in Moscow’s biggest aerial offensive since the start of its invasion on Feb. 24.
More missile strikes on Tuesday killed seven people in the southeastern town of Zaporizhzhia, a presidential aide said, and left part of the western city of Lviv without power.
