Nuclear Risks Rising: Putin Now 'a Cornered Animal', Retaliates for Crimea Bridge Attack

• North Korea Says Missile Launches Were Nuclear Attack Simulation
• Putin's Response Over Bridge Attack is Non-Nuclear...for Now
• Iran Nuclear Deal Means Higher Gas Prices

Global leaders are raising fresh concerns that the world is getting closer to a nuclear weapons strike due to escalations on several separate fronts. 

North Korea confirms that a recent barrage of missile launches was the simulated use of tactical battlefield nukes. This comes as Russia, which has threatened to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine, unleashed a new barrage of missile attacks against its neighbor this morning.

Communist North Korea says seven recent missile launches, including two on Sunday, were drills of its tactical nuclear operation units, training to wipe out U.S. and South Korean targets. The regime in Pyongyang is upset over recent joint U.S.-South Korean live-fire exercises in the region. 

Meanwhile, the Russian regime unleashed a barrage of explosions, rocking multiple Ukrainian cities today including the capital of Kyiv, where one of those strikes killed at least eight people and injured 24. 

The attack was Russian President Vladimir Putin's response to the Saturday explosion on the huge Kerch Bridge connecting Russia to its annexed territory of Crimea. The bridge attack is believed to be the work of Ukraine.

After the missile strikes, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy told his nation Russia is trying to "wipe us off the face of the earth."

Biden Speaks of 'Nuclear Armageddon'

This comes amid ongoing fears that Putin might use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Biden recently warned that the risk of "nuclear Armageddon" is the highest its been since the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News those comments were "reckless."

"And I think, even more importantly, they demonstrate maybe one of the greatest foreign policy failures of the last decades, which was the failure to deter Vladimir Putin in the same way that the Trump administration did for four years," Pompeo said.

White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby defended Biden's statement, saying, "The president was reflecting the very high stakes that are in play right now." 

Former joint chief's chair Mike Mullen told ABC that Putin's nuclear threats have to be taken seriously. 

"He's a cornered, I believe, a cornered animal," Mullen said, referring to Putin. "And I think he's more and more dangerous because of just what's happened in the last 24 hours." 

With Oil Risks Rising, Biden Still Pushes Iran Nuclear Deal

Meanwhile, a Biden foreign policy initiative in the Middle East is putting the American economy at greater risk.

OPEC is cutting production, in part because the White House is trying to make a nuclear deal with Iran, which many Arab nations oppose.

Biden continues to tap the strategic petroleum reserve in a bid to keep gas prices lower in the weeks leading up to election day. 

Pompeo called that "...a failure of American policy. Joe Biden is directly responsible for the place that the world finds itself on energy, and, frankly, his party, the progressive left, for 25 years of thinking you were going to run the world on sunshine and windmills."

America's new energy crisis even has former President Barack Obama's economic adviser blaming the White House. 

Larry Summers told Bloomberg's Wall Street Week, "Look, we made a mistake by canceling the Keystone Pipeline. We made a mistake by slowing down all kinds of permitting activity. We made a mistake by being hostile as a country to natural gas."

Gas prices are already hurting Democrats and the last thing they need in the run-up to the midterms is another price increase.  

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