The United Nations Secretary General warned Monday about the possibility that the Ukraine-Russia crisis could escalate into nuclear war.
“Raising the alert level of Russian nuclear forces is a bone-chilling development,” António Guterres told reporters on Monday, Reuters first reported. “The prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility.”
Guterres urged negotiation and reconciliation, noting the fallout that Ukrainian civilians have endured as a result of the Russian invasion.
“It’s time to stop the horror unleashed on the people of Ukraine and get on the path of diplomacy and peace,” he said. “The appeals for peace must be heard. This tragedy must stop.”
Amid recent Russian attacks around nuclear plants in Ukraine, such as the training facility outside the perimeter of the Zaporizhzhia plant in eastern Ukraine that caught fire due to cross-fighting, Guterres demanded the protection of Ukrainian nuclear facilities. The U.N. is directing $40 million from its Central Emergency Response fund to humanitarian aid for Ukrainians, he added.
“This funding will help get critical supplies of food, water, medicines and other lifesaving aid into the country as well as provide cash assistance,” Guterres said.
Four days after Russia began its air, naval, and ground assault into Ukraine, Russian president Vladimir Putin put his nuclear deterrent forces on “high alert” for a “special regime of combat duty,” which he said was in response to what he claimed was NATO aggression.
Just last February, the U.S. renewed the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, the nuclear arms control agreement with Russia, for another five years. The bilateral treaty had both national pledge reductions and limitations on strategic defense arms, specifically nuclear warheads and the land- and submarine-based missiles and military aircraft designed to carry them.
Last month, reporters pressed President Biden on whether Americans should be concerned about the possibility of nuclear conflict, to which he replied, “No.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki had slammed Putin’s antagonistic rhetoric about nuclear weapons, saying, “Neither the United States nor NATO has any desire or intention for conflict with Russia. We think provocative rhetoric like this regarding nuclear weapons is dangerous, adds to the risk of miscalculation, should be avoided, and we will not indulge in it.”
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