UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday renewed his call for a global end to nuclear weapons as concerns grow over the threat of Russia using them in the Ukraine conflict.
“Decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we can once again hear the sounds of nuclear weapons,” Guterres said at a special session of the General Assembly on nuclear disarmament.
“Let me be clear – the era of nuclear blackmail must end,” he said.
“The idea that any country could fight and win a nuclear war is absurd. Any use of nuclear weapons would trigger a humanitarian Armageddon,” he said.
Peace cannot be achieved without the elimination of nuclear weapons.
In a speech last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons after Ukrainian forces recaptured land seized in Moscow’s seven-month offensive.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blanken responded that Washington had told Moscow, including through private channels, of the “catastrophic” consequences of any use of nuclear weapons.
Guterres expressed disappointment that a review conference on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty last month failed to reach a consensus.
Russia blocked the outcome after the draft document backed control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, whose seizure by Moscow has raised fears of a major accident.
The United States has condemned Russia’s position. But none of the nuclear powers backed the 2017 UN treaty calling for a comprehensive ban on nuclear weapons, with support from most developing countries.
No country has used nuclear weapons on the battlefield except the United States in 1945, when it destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than 200,000 people. Imperial Japan surrendered a few days later, ending World War II.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to work for a “world free of nuclear weapons” in his speech to the General Assembly last week.
“The threat of using nuclear weapons, as Russia has done, let alone the actual use of nuclear weapons, is a serious threat to the peace and security of the international community, and is absolutely unacceptable,” Kishida said. “
