In a video address to the Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s fundamental policy that nuclear war has no winners and should never be fought. He recounted Moscow’s efforts in this direction. “This principle has been confirmed in the June 16, 2021, joint statement of the presidents of Russia and the U.S., as well as in the June 28, 2021, joint statement of the heads of Russia and China. It is important that, under Russia’s initiative and with its most active participation, a joint statement of leaders of the five nuclear powers was developed and adopted on January 3 about prevention of nuclear war and prevention of an arms race,” Lavrov stated.
Lavrov also expressed grave concerns over Ukraine’s intention to become a nuclear state. He stressed that the “irresponsible statements” by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Munich Security Conference regarding plans for obtaining nuclear weapons were not “bravado.”
“Ukraine has Soviet nuclear technologies and delivery vehicles. We cannot but react to this real danger. I can promise you that Russia as a responsible member of the international community, determined to adhere to its WMD non-proliferation commitments, has been taking every measure to prevent Ukraine from laying hands on nuclear weapons and the related technologies.”
Lavrov also said: “It is unacceptable for us that U.S. nuclear weapons still remain in a number of European states in contradiction to the basic points of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The bad practice of joint nuclear missions with the participation of non-nuclear NATO states continues. During such missions, the use of nuclear weapons against Russia is being practiced,” he remarked. “U.S. nuclear weapons must have long been returned home, and the corresponding infrastructure in Europe must have long been eliminated.”
Russia’s strategic goals, the security guarantees that Russia was seeking from NATO as expressed in the draft treaties that were released last December, Lavrov continued, have not changed with the launching of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. “[Our] Western colleagues have not yet shown any willingness to provide Russia with long-term legally binding security guarantees. ... For us, achieving these objectives is of fundamental importance.”
Lavrov stressed that the issue here is refusing NATO’s expansion any further, and abandoning the “Bucharest formula” (a reference to the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008) that sees Ukraine and Georgia becoming members of the U.S.-led military bloc. “Western countries should refrain from establishing military facilities on the territory of former U.S.S.R. states that are not members of the alliance, including the use of their infrastructure for conducting any military activity. It is necessary to return NATO’s military capabilities, including strike [capabilities], and NATO infrastructure to the state of 1997, when the NATO-Russia Founding Act was adopted,” Lavrov concluded.
