The US and NATO are directly involved in the war in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.
“You shouldn’t say that the US and NATO aren’t taking part in this war. You are directly participating in it,” Lavrov said at a press conference.
“And not just by providing weapons but also by training personnel. You are training their military on your territory, on the territories of Britain, Germany, Italy, and other countries,” he added.
Lavrov made the comments while defending Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, which have left millions of civilians without power and heat as temperatures are dropping. He said that Russia is “disabling” energy infrastructure that allows the US and NATO to “pump Ukraine with deadly weapons to kill Russians”
Lavrov also warned that any conventional war between nuclear-armed powers comes with a huge risk of nuclear escalation. He said that any war between nuclear powers is “unacceptable.”
“Even if someone plans to start it by conventional means, the risk of escalation into a nuclear war will be enormous,” Lavrov added.
President Biden warned in October that the world was closer to “nuclear armageddon” than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. While there has been an increase in communication between the US and Russia, there’s no sign that Washington is willing to back down on its support for Ukraine, risking an escalation that could one day lead to direct fighting with Moscow.
