Russia invokes its nuclear capacity in a UN speech that's full of bile toward the West

Russia invokes its nuclear capacity in a UN speech that's full of bile toward the West

EDITH M. LEDERER and JENNIFER PELTZ

Russia’s top diplomat warned Saturday against “trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power,” delivering a U.N. General Assembly speech packed with condemnations of what Russia sees as Western attempts at global domination and machinations in Ukraine -- and even inside the United Nations itself.

Three days after Russian President Vladimir Putin aired a shift in his country’s nuclear doctrine, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the West of using Ukraine — which Russia invaded in February 2022 — as a tool to try “to defeat” Moscow strategically, and “preparing Europe for it to also throw itself into this suicidal escapade.”

“I’m not going to talk here about the senselessness and the danger of the very idea of trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power, which is what Russia is,” he said.

Putin’s recent announcement — which appeared to lower significantly the threshold for the possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal — was seen as a message to the U.S. and other Western countries as Ukraine seeks their go-ahead to strike Russia with longer-range weapons.

“Whether or not they will provide the permission for Ukraine for long-range weapons, then we will see what their understanding was of what they heard,” Lavrov said at a news conference after his speech Saturday.

Lavrov condemns Washington for expanding influence east

The Biden administration this week announced an additional $2.7 billion in military aid for Ukraine, but it doesn’t include the type of long-range arms that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is seeking, nor a green light to use such weapons to strike deep into Russia.

In the wide-ranging news conference, Lavrov complained that the “arrogance and aggressiveness of Western politicians” toward Russia was hobbling global governance, from the U.N. Security Council to the newly adopted Pact for the Future, which Russia sought unsuccessfully to water down.

He was critical of the geopolitical and military expansion of NATO, saying, “It is now trying to take root in the south Caucusus, in central Asia, creating direct threats to the security of our country.”

NATO has partnerships with the three south Caucusus countries – Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan — and all central Asian countries except Afghanistan. But none is a NATO member. “And now the same is happening in the Asia-Pacific region, where NATO infrastructure is creeping in to contain or deter China and Russia,” he told the assembly.

Lavrov accused the United States of seeking “to preserve their hegemony and to govern everything.” He pointed to NATO’s deepening relations with four partners – New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and Japan — as well as the so-called Quad which groups the U.S., India, Australia and Japan.

On Wednesday, Putin said that if attacked by any country supported by a nuclear-armed nation, Russia will consider that a joint attack. He didn’t specify whether that would bring a nuclear response, but he stressed that Russia could use nuclear weapons in response to a conventional assault that posed a “critical threat to our sovereignty.”