Zakharova: Nato balancing on the brink of direct armed conflict

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According to Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, the European Union's aggressive approach regarding their "unrestrained expansion", especially in their recent granting of Ukraine and Moldova EU candidacy, carries the potential for the emergence of new, deeper divides and crises in Europe.

"Such an aggressive approach by the European Union obviously carries the potential for the emergence of new, deeper lines of split and crises in Europe as a whole. Such a policy of Brussels has nothing to do with the real needs of the inhabitants of Ukraine and the EU countries," Zakharova said, pointing to the EU summit which came down to the recent decisions. 

Yesterday, European Union leaders have agreed to grant both Ukraine and Moldova the EU candidacy status in a show of support from the EU as part of their positions in the proxy war taking place in Ukraine. 

The decision to grant the two nations EU candidacy puts the two ex-Soviet nations on the long path toward joining the EU bloc. A series of steps have been laid out by the EU for Kiev to take, including the reinforcement of the rule of law and fighting corruption.

Ukraine applied for the EU membership on February 28, shortly after Russia launched its military operation. It was followed by Georgia and Moldova, which decided to fast-track submission of their applications and similarly received the EU questionnaire in mid-April. 

"Russia never threatened anyone with nuclear weapons"

Zakharova went on to say that Moscow has never threatened anyone with nuclear weapons, and that Moscow's approach in using nuclear weapons hypothetically is based only on a deterrence logic. 

This week in Vienna, a conference the first of its kind, hosted the representatives of the 86 signatories of the Treaty of Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The signatories, however, are neither NATO members, nor possessors of nuclear weapons. 

"The statements made one day before of the Conference of the [TPNW] States Parties in the context of the Ukrainian conflict regarding 'mutual threats to use nuclear weapons,' as well as individual statements from the rostrum of the conference about Russia's alleged 'nuclear blackmail' cannot but arouse bewilderment. We emphasize again: no 'nuclear threats' have ever been and are not heard from Russia," the statement says. 

According to Zakharova, "Russian approaches are based solely on the logic of deterrence, including in the current conditions, when the NATO countries that provoked the aggravation of the Ukrainian crisis and unleashed a hybrid campaign against Russia and proclaimed themselves a 'nuclear alliance' are dangerously balancing on the brink of a direct armed conflict." 
 
 "Whether someone likes it or not, as long as nuclear weapons exist, the logic of deterrence remains an effective way to prevent nuclear clashes and large-scale wars. Distortion for propaganda purposes of the essence of Russian policy in this area — which is based on the postulate of the inadmissibility of nuclear war — is absolutely unacceptable," she added.

Nuclear weapons number continues to increase globally: SIPRI

In 2021, the nine nuclear powers had 12,330 nuclear warheads. Now in 2022, Britain, China, France, India, "Israel", North Korea, Pakistan, the United States, and Russia had 12,705 nuclear warheads. In total, the world has 375 fewer nuclear warheads according to estimates by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

In 1986, the total number of nuclear warheads was higher than 70,000 as the US and Russia have gradually reduced their massive arsenals. But this era of disarmament appears to be approaching an end and the risk of nuclear escalation is remerging, for the first time since the Cold-war era.

"Soon, we're going to get to the point where, for the first time since the end of the Cold War, the global number of nuclear weapons in the world could start increasing for the first time", one of the co-authors of the SIPRI report, Matt Korda, told AFP.