US and NATO risk catastrophic clash of nuclear powers with involvement in Ukraine war, claims Russia
Involving the US and NATO in the war in Ukraine could have “catastrophic consequences,” Russia warned Thursday.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Geneva Disarmament Conference that “the most acute strategic threat now emanates from US and NATO policies.”
He said the west’s involvement in Ukraine was aimed at “further fueling the conflict in and around” the country.
“Their growing involvement in armed confrontation is fraught with a direct military clash of nuclear powers with catastrophic consequences.”
Ryabkov spoke in front of a largely empty room, with many Western diplomats in particular choosing to gather symbolically for a nearby photo opportunity in front of a mural painted in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag during his scheduled speaking time.
Image shows the launch of an RS-28 Russian Sarmat ballistic missile in April 2022
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov attends the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on March 2, 2023
Fire and rescue workers attend a building hit by a rocket in the center of Kiev on November 23, 2022
The Conference on Disarmament, or CD, is the world’s foremost multilateral disarmament forum. It was founded in 1979 to try to stop the arms race during the Cold War.
The CD is not a UN body, but meets three times a year at UN headquarters in Geneva to discuss arms control and disarmament, with an emphasis on curbing the nuclear arms race.
But the statements made there have become increasingly combative since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine a year ago.
Opening the CD session on Monday, US Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Bonnie Jenkins criticized Russia’s suspension of participation in New START, the latest nuclear arms control pact between Moscow and Washington.
“Russia is once again showing the world that it is not a responsible nuclear power,” she said, warning that “we now face a dramatically unstable security environment that is pulling us away from collective action here.”
Ryabkov insisted on Thursday that Russia had no choice but to suspend its participation in the treaty because “an all-out hybrid war (was) unleashed against us.”
“At the same time, as already indicated, we will continue to comply with the quantitative limits on strategic offensive weapons,” he told the CD.
Ryabkov was also scheduled to address the UN Human Rights Council later Thursday.
Image shows an RS-24 ‘heavy’ Yars missile launch through Russia in October 2022
Image shows a mobile Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile in Russia
Ukrainian servicemen of Prince Roman the Great’s 14th Separate Mechanized Brigade fire a Soviet-era Grad rocket launcher at Russian positions in the Kharkiv area, February 25
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave a video address to that council on Thursday morning, in which he stressed that it should expand a high-level war crimes investigation, a so-called Commission of Inquiry, into Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
“As long as Russia continues to fight its war, the COI must continue to document such abuses, provide an impartial account of what is happening and provide a basis for national and international efforts to hold perpetrators accountable,” he said.
He also welcomed the Council’s decision to appoint an expert to monitor human rights violations in Russia.
“Governments that commit atrocities abroad are likely to violate people’s rights at home, and that’s exactly what Russia is doing.”