Joe Biden has been accused of “sleepwalking into World War 3” by a close ally of rival Donald Trump.
And Ohio Senator JD Vance, tipped as a possibly running mate for Mr Trump when he takes on Joe Biden in November’s Presidential election, also believes the risk of nuclear war is “higher than any point in my lifetime”.
Concerns have been rising among Republicans in Washington at Mr Biden’s decision to sanction the use of Western-built weapons by Ukraine inside Russia.
Kremlin-aligned blogger Evgeniy Poddubny yesterday claimed HIMARS missiles had been used to strike targets in the Belgorod Oblast, sharing a slide of pictures to illustrate his point. Express.co.uk has not verified the photographs.
Mr Vance was responding to a post on X by internet entrepreneur David Sacks, co-founder of Craft Ventures, who said: “Never once during the Cold War would we have dreamed of striking Russia on its own soil, even through a proxy.”
Referring to Mr Trump’s recent court case, he added: “I’ll take a ‘convicted felon’ over World War 3 any day.”
Thirty-nine-year-old Mr Vance commented: “I just spoke to a friend I trust on what’s going on in Russia.
“I think the risk of nuclear war is higher now than at any point in my lifetime.
“Biden is sleepwalking into World War 3.”
NATO foreign ministers were meeting in Prague on Friday to prepare for this summer’s leaders’ summit, with other nations likely to follow Washington’s lead.
A day after Mr Biden gave Ukraine the go-ahead to use American munitions to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv, numerous ministers, including those from the Netherlands, Finland, Poland and Germany, expressed approval of the decision, saying that Ukraine has the absolute right to defend itself from attacks originating on Russian soil.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said: “This is a matter of upholding international law – Ukraine’s right to self-defence.
Russia has attacked Ukraine, which has the right to defend themselves. And that includes also attacking military legitimate targets inside Russia.”
“If you look at the battlefield now, Russia is launching attacks on Ukraine’s soil from Russian soil with artillery, missiles, and massing troops.
The alliance marks its 75th anniversary this year and leaders will be meeting in Washington in July to reaffirm their support.
Mr Stoltenberg said he expects to be able to announce at the summit that at least two-thirds of members are meeting their commitment to spend two of their gross domestic product on defence.
“And, of course, it makes it very hard for Ukraine to defend themselves if they are not allowed to use advanced weapons to repel those attacks.”
Ukrainian officials had stepped up calls on the US administration to allow their forces to defend themselves against attacks originating from Russian territory. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, is just 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Russian border.
Ukrainian officials, most notably President Volodymyr Zelensky, have been increasingly vocal in arguing that the restriction was putting Ukrainian forces in an untenable situation as Russia intensified attacks around Kharkiv.
Russia has been exploiting a lengthy delay in the replenishment of US military aid and Western Europe’s inadequate military production that has slowed crucial deliveries to the battlefield for Ukraine.
