President Biden Says Putin Considers Using Chemical Weapons, Ukrainian Military Calls On Residents For Russian Attacks

Rescue team in a Ukrainian building hit by a Russian attack. (Wikimedia Commons/dsns.gov.ua/State Emergency Service of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Ukraine's military has asked residents to prepare for an attack on vital infrastructure by Russia, as US President Joe Biden issued one of his strongest warnings yet that Moscow is considering using chemical weapons.

Russian forces have failed to capture major Ukrainian cities four weeks after their invasion, and are increasingly causing massive destruction to residential areas using air strikes, long-range missiles, and artillery.

The southern port of Mariupol has been a focal point of Russian attacks and lies mostly in ruins, with bodies lying on the streets, but attacks were also reported to have escalated in the second city of Kharkiv on Monday.

The Ukrainian armed forces said in a statement issued on Tuesday that Russian troops were expected to continue attacking critical infrastructure using "high-precision weapons".

Separately, without citing evidence, President Biden dismissed false accusations that Kyiv had biological and chemical weapons, suggesting President Vladimir Putin was considering using them himself.

Illustration of a convoy of Russian combat vehicles in Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/Mil.ru)

"Putin's back is against the wall and now he's talking about the new false flag he's created including, asserting that we in America have biological and chemical weapons in Europe, which is simply not true," President Biden said at the Business Roundtable.

"They also assessed that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. That's a clear sign that he is considering using both", he continued. The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On the occasion, President Biden also asked businesses to be vigilant, against possible cyber attacks by Russia, saying "it's part of Russia's guidelines".

Washington and its allies have previously accused Russia of spreading unsubstantiated claims that Ukraine has a biological weapons program as an initial possibility to use the weapon itself. But President Biden's remarks on Monday were some of his strongest on the subject.

Russia said it had not attacked civilians, although the devastation in Ukrainian cities such as Mariupol and Kharkiv was reminiscent of previous Russian attacks on cities in Chechnya and Syria.

President Putin called the war, the biggest offensive in a European country since World War Two, a "special military operation" to disarm Ukraine and protect it from the Nazis. Meanwhile, the West calls this a false pretext for a war of unwarranted aggression.

Ukrainian officials hope Moscow will negotiate a withdrawal. The two sides last week signaled progress in talks on a formula that would include some sort of "neutrality" for Ukraine, though no details have been released yet.

To note, earlier this month, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, warning him of the consequences for "any Russian decision that may use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine". The White House did not specify what the consequences would be.