Ukraine conflict risks nuclear war – NATO state’s top diplomat
The Ukraine conflict could escalate and even develop into a nuclear war, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has warned.
The official made the statement just days after the US announced almost $1 billion worth in additional military aid for Ukraine. In recent weeks, NATO officials have reportedly revived talks around potentially deploying Western troops into the conflict, an escalation Moscow has sharply warned against.
“We do not deny the possibility that the war will develop into a much more dangerous dimension, both geographically and potentially into the use of nuclear weapons,” Fidan said in the Turkish parliament on Tuesday.
Ankara will continue diplomatic efforts to try to bring the conflict to a peaceful close in 2025, he added.
Türkiye hosted the first unsuccessful peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in the spring of 2022, shortly after the conflict began. According to Moscow, an agreement was reached and documents were ready to be signed when talks broke down.
Kiev’s top negotiator, lawmaker David Arakhamia, later told the media that then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had urged Ukraine to continue fighting. Johnson has since denied any role in torpedoing the peace talks.
Last week, in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s position on further negotiations with Kiev.
While Russia is ready to begin talks on the basis of what was already agreed on during the 2022 discussions in Istanbul, the situation in the Ukraine conflict has progressed beyond them, he said. New “realities on the ground” would have to be taken into account, including the Donetsk and Lugansk republics and Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, which voted to join Russia in a series of referendums. All of the territories are now indelibly parts of Russia, as per the country’s Constitution, Lavrov stressed.
