Germany Condemns Russian Nuclear Threats

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has joined her US counterpart, Antony Blinken, in launching a fierce criticism at the United Nations of Russia's nuclear threats.

At the United Nations (UN) conference to review the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Green Party politician said in New York on Monday that Moscow had repeatedly used "reckless nuclear rhetoric" in which it jeopardized the last 50 years of efforts to control nuclear weapons.

Baerbock added that in its war on Ukraine, Russia attacked a country that did not have nuclear weapons and then "brutally violated" previous commitments.

In the same vein, Blinken accused Moscow of using its nuclear weapons to intimidate and threaten.

He told the UN that Russia has "engaged in reckless, dangerous nuclear saber rattling," adding that "there is no place in our world for nuclear deterrence based on force and intimidation or blackmail. We have to stand together in rejecting this."

On the other hand, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that he did not intend to launch a nuclear war.

Putin wrote in a welcome address to the conference participants and published by the Kremlin on its website, "We proceed from the fact that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it should never be unleashed."

Shortly after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian president announced that the Russian army's "deterrence force", a force that includes a nuclear component, was on heightened alert.