The Russian government has warned that a third World War ‘will be a nuclear and destructive one’ .

This comes as the western world continues to condemn Russia and ratchet up tensions against the state for it’s invasion of Ukraine which has led to a huge humanitarian crisis in Europe and loss of lives.

In a thinly veiled threat for NATO not to get involved in Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (pictured below)  said on Wednesday, March 2 that any future world war would be fought with nuclear weapons – a statement that comes just days after President Vladimir Putin warned that any country sending troops to Ukraine would be met with severe consequences.

‘A third world war will be nuclear and destructive’

Lavrov also accused Kyiv of delaying peace talks at the behest of the US and said the invasion aims to prevent Ukraine from obtaining nuclear weapons of its own.

‘We are ready for the second round of negotiations, but the Ukrainian side is delaying [the process] at the behest of the Americans,’ said Lavrov, according to Russian news agency TASS. 

‘Russian forces will not allow Ukraine to obtain nuclear weapons’ He added

Lavrov’s thinly-veiled threat of a potential nuclear conflict comes just one day after he denounced the presence of American nuclear weapons in Europe.

‘It is unacceptable for us that US nuclear weapons still remain in a number of European states in contradiction to the basic points of the NPT,’ Russia’s foreign minister told a Geneva conference on disarmament in a pre-recorded message on Tuesday, March 1. 

‘The bad practice of joint nuclear missions with the participation of non-nuclear NATO states continues. During such missions, the use of nuclear weapons against Russia is being practiced,’ Lavrov continued. 

‘US nuclear weapons should have returned home long ago, and the corresponding infrastructure in Europe should have long been eliminated.’

As Lavrov spoke, delegates from around the world walked out of the conference .