NATO’S SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE INCREASES THE RISK OF NUCLEAR WAR, WARNS RUSSIA

Thu 12 May 2022:

On Thursday, one of President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies warned the West that the US and its allies’ increasing military assistance for Ukraine risked triggering a conflict between Russia and the NATO military alliance.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently the deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, said a fight with NATO always had the potential to escalate into a full-fledged nuclear war.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed large swaths of its former Soviet neighbor, and sparked fears of the most serious confrontation between Russia and the US since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

“NATO countries pumping weapons into Ukraine, training troops to use Western equipment, sending in mercenaries and the exercises of Alliance countries near our borders increase the likelihood of a direct and open conflict between NATO and Russia,” Medvedev said in a Telegram post.

“Such a conflict always has the risk of turning into a full-fledged nuclear war,” Medvedev said. “This will be a disastrous scenario for everyone.”

Russia and the United States are by far the world’s biggest nuclear powers: Russia has some 6,257 nuclear warheads while NATO’s three nuclear powers – the United States, United Kingdom and France – have about 6,065 warheads combined, according to the Washington-based Arms Control Association.

Putin claims that the “special military operation” in Ukraine is necessary because the US was using Ukraine to threaten Russia, and Moscow needed to defend Russian-speaking people.

Putin, who claims that Ukraine and Russia are basically one people, portrays the conflict as an unavoidable clash with the US, which he accuses of threatening Russia by intervening in its backyard through NATO’s eastward expansion.

Ukraine claims it is fighting an imperial land grab, and Putin’s accusations of genocide are false. According to Kyiv, Putin’s invasion has only increased the Ukrainian people’s desire to leave Russia’s orbit.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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