The United Nations Secretary-General gave a grim warning Monday on the possibility that the Ukraine-Russia conflict might intensify into nuclear war.
“Raising the alert level of Russian nuclear forces is a bone-chilling development,” António Guterres told reporters on Monday, Reuters first reported. “The prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility.”
Guterres pushed for negotiation and settlement, keeping in mind the after-effects that Ukrainian citizens have already sustained as an end result of the Russian invasion.
“It’s time to stop the horror unleashed on the people of Ukraine and get on the path of diplomacy and peace,” he said. “The appeals for peace must be heard. This tragedy must stop.”
Amidst current Russian attacks around nuclear plants in Ukraine, such as the training facility outside the boundary of the Zaporizhzhia plant in eastern Ukraine that caught fire due to cross-fighting, Guterres required the protection of Ukrainian nuclear centers. The U.N. is routing $40 million from its Central Emergency Reaction fund to altruistic assistance for Ukrainians, he included.
“This funding will help get critical supplies of food, water, medicines and other lifesaving aid into the country as well as provide cash assistance,” Guterres said.
Four days after Russia began its marine, air, and also ground assault into Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin placed his nuclear deterrent pressures on “high alert” for a “special regime of combat duty,” which he claimed continued to be in response to what he stated was NATO hostility.
Just last February, the U.S. renewed the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, the nuclear arms handle agreement with Russia, for an additional 5 years. The bilateral treaty had both national pledge decreases and restrictions on strategic defense arms, specifically nuclear warheads and also the land- as well as submarine-based rockets and also military planes developed to bring them.
Last month, press reporters pushed President Biden on whether Americans should be concerned at the prospect of nuclear conflict, to which he flatly responded, “No.”.
White Home press secretary Jen Psaki had actually knocked Putin’s antagonistic rhetoric regarding nuclear weapons as well, saying, “Neither the United States nor NATO has any desire or intention for conflict with Russia. We think provocative rhetoric like this regarding nuclear weapons is dangerous, adds to the risk of miscalculation, should be avoided, and we will not indulge in it.”
H/T NationalReview
