‘A Third World War Will Be NUCLEAR And Destructive’ – Putin’s Foreign Minister Warns US And Europe

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that a third world war ‘will be nuclear and destructive’ as the fallout of his nation’s invasion of neighbour Ukraine intensifies.

In a thinly veiled threat for NATO not to get involved in Ukraine, Lavrov said that any future world war would be fought with nuclear weapons – a statement that comes just days after President Vladimir Putin warned that any country sending troops to Ukraine would be met with severe consequences.

The foreign minister went on to claim that Moscow was ready to enter a second round of negotiations aimed at achieving peace in Ukraine, and accused Kyiv of deliberately delaying the process at the request of the United States.

‘We are ready for the second round of negotiations, but the Ukrainian side is delaying [the process] at the behest of the Americans,’ said Lavrov, according to Russian news agency TASS.

A Russian source close to the negotiations said that the second round of talks was supposed to take place later today close to the Belarusian-Polish border after an initial attempt at diplomacy concluded on Monday.

Lavrov this morning also sought to justify the invasion of Ukraine by saying Russia’s forces ‘will not allow Ukraine to obtain nuclear weapons’, TASS reported.

There is no evidence that Ukraine has nuclear weapons or plans to acquire them, though Lavrov yesterday questioned why the United States continued to maintain nuclear weapons in European countries in spite of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

‘It is unacceptable for us that US nuclear weapons still remain in a number of European states in contradiction to the basic points of the NPT,’ Lavrov told a Geneva conference on disarmament in a pre-recorded message.

‘The bad practice of joint nuclear missions with the participation of non-nuclear NATO states continues. During such missions, the use of nuclear weapons against Russia is being practiced,’ Lavrov continued.

‘US nuclear weapons should have returned home long ago, and the corresponding infrastructure in Europe should have long been eliminated.’

But his words fell on deaf ears as delegates from around the world walked out of the conference amid Lavrov’s remonstrations.

Russia’s threats come as its forces begin to rack up considerable losses amid bitter urban fighting in the streets of several Ukrainian cities.Photo Credit: Getty