Moscow does not threaten Washington and its European allies and is doing its best to prevent further escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov said in an article for Newsweek.
"Our country does not threaten the United States and its European allies, but, on the contrary, is making every effort to prevent the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis," he said. "We are compelled to warn of the emerging risks associated with the intervention of NATO states into the Russian special military operation."
"The current generation of NATO politicians clearly does not take the nuclear threat seriously," he added.
In this regard, the Russian diplomat cited a Soviet and a US official, who "went through the Second World War and knew from personal experience what the blood and torment of millions of people are."
"We are in a dire need of military intellectuals," Antonov quoted Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, who was the Soviet defense minister in 1957-1967. "Not just highly educated officers, but people who have mastered advanced culture of heart and spirit a humanistic outlook. Modern weapons of such destructive power cannot be entrusted to a skillful person who has only a firm grip. To wield it one needs a clear head capable of foreseeing consequences as well as a sensible heart. That is a mighty moral instinct."
Antonov also cited US President John Kennedy, who commented on US-USSR relations after the Cuban missile crisis in the following way: "If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."
But Antonov believes his Western colleagues misread the weight of the nuclear risk, and that's why Russian officials "have never stopped our efforts to reach agreements that will guarantee that a catastrophic confrontation will not be unleashed." "It is our country that in recent years has persistently proposed to American colleagues to affirm that there can be no winners in a nuclear war, thus it should never happen," Antonov said. He noted the inclusion of this "no winners" principle in the joint Russia-U.S. statement adopted after the June 2021 summit held between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and again among the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council in January of this year.
