‘Risk of nuclear weapon use’: Russia’s top security official warns US, allies

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev on Wednesday warned that the Western destructive policy increases the risk of the use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

“The natural consequence of the United States’ destructive policies is the deterioration in the global security,” Patrushev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, was quoted as saying by state news agency TASS.

“The risk that nuclear, chemical and biological weapons will be used is increasing,” Patrushev said, adding, “The international arms control regime has been undermined.”

Nikolai Patrushev also claimed Ukraine attempted to attack three nuclear power plants in Russia. “Moldova is on the path to losing its sovereignty, and risks becoming another victim of the Western colonialism,” he said.

Patrushev’s statement comes days after Putin said some Western weapons supplied to Ukraine were finding their way to the Middle East through the illegal arms market and being sold to the Taliban.

“Now they say: weapons are getting into the Middle East from Ukraine. Well of course they are because they are being sold,” Putin said. “And they are being sold to the Taliban and from there they go onto wherever.”

Since Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24 last year, Western powers have sent Ukraine tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons in an attempt to defeat Russian troops.

Ukraine says it keeps tight control over any weapons supplied to it, but some Western security officials have raised concerns and the United States has asked Ukraine to do more to tackle the broader issue of corruption.

In June 2022, the secretary general of Interpol, Jürgen Stock, warned that some of the weapons sent to Ukraine could end up in the hands of organised crime groups.

A report about the Ukraine war and the illegal arms trade by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime said in March that there was “currently no substantial outflow of weapons from the Ukrainian conflict zone.

The eight biggest Western donors to Ukraine led by the United States have made military commitments to Ukraine totalling at least 84 billion euros ($90 billion), according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks donors.

US military support includes 160 155mm howitzers, 109 Bradley fighting vehicles, more than 111 million rounds of small arms ammunition and 38 high mobility artillery rocket systems.

(With inputs from agencies)

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