US President Joe Biden said in an exclusive interview with CNN that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin made “miscalculations” regarding the invasion of Ukraine, but also does not believe that Moscow will go so far as to nuke Ukraine.

“I think he is a rational player who made a significant miscalculation,” the US president said of the Kremlin security official.

Asked how realistic he thought it was that Mr. Putin would order the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine, the White House host told the host, “Well, I don’t think he will.”

While he called it “rational,” Biden stressed that he considered “absurd” the goals that Putin called in the speech to launch the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “If you listen to the speech he made after making this decision… He spoke of a big idea… that he should become the leader of Russia, who will unite all Russian speakers. I just think it’s absurd,” Joe Biden said.

The US President added that Putin mistakenly believed that the Ukrainians would submit to the Russian occupiers, which was refuted by the fierce resistance they met.

“I think in his performance the goals were unreasonable. I think he thought, Jake, that he would be welcomed with open arms, that this was Mother Russia’s home in Kyiv, and that he would be welcomed. I just think he made a total miscalculation,” Mr. Biden told reporter Jake Tupper.

He also responded that he had no “intention” to meet with Putin on the sidelines of the upcoming G20 summit, but added that this would “depend”, in particular, on whether his Russian counterpart had expressed an intention to discuss the publication American Woman, who remains imprisoned in Russia.

“I’m not going to meet him. But if, for example, he comes to me at the G20 and says:” I want to discuss the release[известной американской баскетболистки Бритни]Greiner, I’ll meet him.

Mr. Biden was interviewed by a CNN reporter hours after a conference call with G7 leaders during which the Ukrainian president stressed the need to strengthen his country’s air defenses in the face of massive Russian bombing.

Source: APE-MPE, CNN.