Russian leader Vladimir Putin issued a warning the U.S. and NATO they face “catastrophic consequences” if they continue their involvement in the Ukraine war.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei said:
“The most acute strategic threat is posed now by the U.S. and NATO policy aimed at further fomenting the conflict in and around Ukraine.”
Sergei Ryabkov told the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, “the most acute strategic threat is posed now by the U.S. and NATO policy aimed at further fomenting the conflict in and around Ukraine.”
Speaking at a Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Sergei continued:
“Their growing involvement in an armed confrontation is fraught with a direct military clash of nuclear powers with catastrophic consequences.”
Russia’s diplomatic representative spoke before a largely empty chamber, as most Western diplomats gathered for a photo opportunity before a Ukrainian flag mural during his scheduled speaking time.
“We consider this as an extraordinary show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people who resist an unprovoked and unjustified Russia’s aggression,” Ukraine’s ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko told the Associated Press.
“Until Russia takes its tanks out of the field of Ukraine… we are here to show support to our Ukrainian colleague,” British ambassador Simon Manley said.
“Their fight is our fight.”
Russia’s warning comes in the wake of NATO’s agreement to Ukraine’s request for membership sooner rather than later.
During a visit to Finland’s capital Helsinki, Stoltenberg told reporters, “NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine will become a member of our alliance, but at the same time, that is a long-term perspective.”
Stoltenberg’s statement gave weight to the belief that Ukraine’s membership is only a step away.
On Thursday morning, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a video addressing the need to extend a high-level war crimes investigation over Russia’s actions against Ukraine.
“As long as Russia continues to wage its war, the COI should continue to document such abuses, providing an impartial record of what’s occurring and a foundation for national and international efforts to hold perpetrators accountable,” he said.
“Governments that commit atrocities abroad are also likely to violate the rights of people at home, and that’s exactly what Russia is doing.”
Following Putin’s suspension of a landmark nuclear arms control treaty earlier this month, the Russian leader reiterated claims that the Zelensky administration was “neo-Nazi” in its ideology.
Putin also insisted that his administration “did everything possible, really everything possible, to solve this problem by peaceful means.”
The Russian leader added that Western powers did not allow Ukraine to accept such a resolution, Reuters reported.
“I am forced to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty,” Putin said.
“I want to repeat this: it was they who unleashed the war, and we used force to stop it,” Putin asserted.
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