US calls on UNSC to send a 'clear message' that Russian nuclear threats must stop

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday called on every Security Council member state to send a ‘clear message' that Russian nuclear threats "must stop" as it would jeopardise world peace, and is in violation of the UN protocols. The US diplomats urged Moscow to end “the horror” of its war in Ukraine at a high-profile UN Security Council meeting Thursday. Russia earlier yesterday partially mobilized the reserves for the first time since World War II as President Vladimir Putin threatened to use “all means available to us” to defend his territory, including his nuclear arsenal. 

'Reckless nuclear threats must stop': Blinken

At the annual UN General Assembly gathering of world leaders, the US pushed for the United Nations to ensure that the countries deter from making nuclear threats. The diplomats also objected to the Russian-backed referendums in occupied parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, stressing that they would not be recognized by the international community. US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken lambasted Russia, calling the illegitimate attempts of the annexation of Ukrainian territories "nonbinding." He noted that "in their wake, Moscow might then see any Ukrainian attempt to retake those areas as an attack on 'Russian territory.'" 

"Every council member should send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately," US Secretary of State emphasised at UNSC meeting. 

During his address, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov refrained from mentioning Russia's nuclear capabilities, or the new troop mobilization. Instead, he underscored the Ukraine army's so-called genocide against the ethnic Russian population in the eastern Donbass region. France meanwhile insisted that Moscow must discuss accountability for alleged abuses and atrocities committed during the seven-month-long conflict. Lavrov, although attacked the West for supplying the weapons and flaring the war. “What’s particularly cynical is the position of states that are pumping Ukraine full of weapons and training their soldiers,” he said, maintaining that their goal is to prolong fighting “to wear down and weaken Russia.”

“That policy means the direct involvement of the West in the conflict,” Lavrov asserted. He added that Ukraine became “an anti-Russia staging ground to create threats against Russian security” and his country wouldn’t accept it.