Biden warns Ukraine's NATO membership during war could trigger WWIII

President Joe Biden of the United States has warned that Ukraine’s potential accession to NATO while it is at war with Russia is likely to culminate in a third World War.

And Ukraine has said it just received internationally-banned cluster munitions from the United States.

On Thursday, and during a joint press conference in Helsinki with President Sauli Niinisto of Finland, Biden said, "No one can join NATO while a war is going on, because that guarantees that we are in a war, we are in a Third World War."

Biden said Ukraine's potential accession is "not about whether or not they should or shouldn't join, it's about when they can join."

NATO's Article 5 stipulates that an attack on one member is an attack on all, which means that if Ukraine is added to the bloc while it is still at war, all NATO members must enter a full-fledge and direct war with Russia, and this is not the bloc's intention right now.

When told if Ukraine could not immediately join NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin would be emboldened, Biden said he did not think the war would continue for years since Russia cannot maintain its resources for that long.

"There is no possibility of him [Putin] winning the war in Ukraine. He has already lost that war," the US president claimed.

G7 offers Ukraine wide-ranging security package at NATO summit

G7 countries have offered Ukraine a long-term security package at the NATO summit as Kiev strives to join the military bloc.

Furthermore, Biden downplayed concerns that Putin could deploy nuclear weapons following a brief mutiny by the Wagner private military group.

"I don’t think there’s any real prospect — you never know — of Putin using nuclear weapons. Not only has the West, but China and the rest of the world has said, 'Don’t go there. Don’t go there.'"

According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia has the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, with 4,477 deployed and reserve nuclear warheads, including around 1,900 tactical nuclear weapons.

Ukraine receives first shipment of cluster bombs

The development came as Ukrainian authorities announced they had received controversial cluster munitions from the US.

"We just got them, we haven't used them yet, but they can radically change (the battlefield)," said Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Tarnavskyi in an interview with US broadcaster CNN on Thursday.

"The enemy also understands that with getting this ammunition, we will have an advantage," he said. "The Russians think that we will use it on all areas of the front... This is very wrong."

On Friday, the White House said the US would indeed supply internationally-banned cluster munitions to Ukraine to help in its counteroffensive against Russian forces despite a global ban on the use of the controversial weaponry.

Cluster bombs are banned under the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), an international treaty that addresses the humanitarian consequences and unacceptable harm caused to civilians by cluster munitions through a categorical prohibition and a framework for action.

The weapons can contain dozens of bomblets, dispersing over vast areas, often killing and maiming civilians. The CCMs are banned because unexploded bomblets can pose a risk to civilians for years after the fighting is over.

Russia says US admitting 'war crime' by justifying cluster bomb delivery to Kiev

Russia

Cluster munitions generally eject submunitions that can cover five times as much area as conventional bombs.

The CCM, which took effect in 2010, bans all use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster bombs. More than 100 countries have signed the treaty, but the US, Russia and Ukraine have not.

The war in Ukraine began after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the launch of a "special military operation" in the ex-Soviet republic on February 24, 2022 to “demilitarize” two eastern Ukrainian regions amid Kiev's vaulting ambitions to join NATO, which Moscow deems a redline.

In September 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine formally applied for a fast-track NATO membership and ruled out talks with Putin as the war entered its eighth month.

Moscow has repeatedly warned Ukraine against its NATO membership proposals, calling the move “purely destabilizing.” Russia has also warned the alliance against its further expansion toward its borders.

Since the beginning of the war, US media have regularly reported on the weapons shipments sent by the US to boost Kiev's fighting forces, with other NATO members delivering tens of billions in military assistance.

By January, the US and its allies had provided Ukraine with over 100 million rounds of small arms ammunition, over a million rounds of artillery shells, and more than 100,000 tank rounds.

Russia sees the flooding of Ukraine with weapons from the West as a futile effort to change the outcome of the war. Moscow says supplying Kiev with more weapons will only add to the death and destruction and prolong the conflict. 

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