- Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that the danger of a nuclear conflict in the Ukraine war is “serious”.
- He said NATO’s delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine means it is “essentially” in a proxy war with Russia.
- However, Ukraine’s foreign minister said Lavrov’s warning was to “stop the world from supporting Ukraine”.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday warned the West not to underestimate the “serious” and “real” risks of a third world war by participating in the war in Ukraine.
During a state television program, Lavrov was asked about the importance of avoiding World War III and whether US-Russia tensions could be compared to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, according to Reuters.
“I don’t want to artificially increase those risks. Many would like that. The danger is serious, real. And we must not underestimate them,” Lavrov replied, the outlet reported.
However, according to Reuters, he also portrayed Russia as a nation eager to reduce the risk of nuclear war.
In contrast, Lavrov said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was “essentially at war” with Russia by supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine, the BBC reported.
In response to Lavrov’s comments, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said tweeted They were a bluff to “stop the world from supporting Ukraine”.
“Hence the talk of a ‘real’ danger of World War III. It only means that Moscow senses defeat in Ukraine,” Kuleba wrote.
Lavrov has previously issued veiled warnings of nuclear war in the face of the invasion of Ukraine.
In early March, two weeks after President Vladimir Putin put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert, Lavrov said nuclear weapons would ensue in the event of a third world war.
He later downplayed the possibility that the war in Ukraine could escalate into nuclear war, but accused the US and NATO of repeatedly raising the issue.
While the US and Britain are now sending advanced weapons and artillery to Ukraine, there appears to have been no official change in Russia’s nuclear stance since February.
Lavrov has been described as a propaganda mouthpiece for Putin. He claimed in March that Russia “did not attack Ukraine” and justified a Russian attack on a Mariupol maternity hospital by saying that the facility had been taken over by a Ukrainian neo-Nazi militia battalion.