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Russia: Dealing with the West is unprecedented in history

2024-10-03 19:17:17, Kosova & Bota CNA

Russia: Dealing with the West is unprecedented in history

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov. Source: AP

The current standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine is unprecedented in history and a mistake that could lead to disaster, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday.

He made the comments when asked about comparisons between the current standoff and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

The now two-and-a-half-year-old war in Ukraine, Europe's biggest ground war since World War II, has fueled a major confrontation between Russia and the West, and Russian officials say the confrontation is now entering its most dangerous phase yet. .

Russian diplomats have in the past drawn comparisons to the 1962 crisis when the Cold War superpowers reportedly came very close to international nuclear war after Moscow secretly placed missiles in Cuba.

But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Thursday that "what is happening [now] bears no resemblance to the past."

Ryabkov, who oversees arms control and relations with North America, told reporters in Moscow that the risk of armed conflict between nuclear powers should not be underestimated.

"We are walking through previously untrodden military and political territory," he said.

Ryabkov said that a mistake at this time could cause great disaster, said that he doubts whether those in the West are able to "understand the consequences of the path they have taken".

For weeks, Russia has been warning the United States and its allies that if they give Ukraine permission to strike deep into Russian soil with Western missiles, then Moscow will see this as a major escalation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long pleaded with allies to allow Ukraine to use the weapons they supply for attacks inside Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 12 that the West would enter into direct war with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to launch attacks on Russian soil with Western-made long-range missiles.

Putin changed Russia's nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for Moscow's use of such weapons in line with the situation.

Zelensky has urged the West to cross and ignore Russia's so-called "red lines," and some Western countries have called on the US to do just that.

Russia, the largest nuclear power in the world, says this is nonsense./ REL