World More Dangerous Than Cold War Era, Warns Russia

The risk of conflict between global powers is at a historic high” thanks to the invasion of Ukraine, the head of the UN has said, while Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has warned the world is at a threshold possibly even more dangerous” than during the Cold War.

- MICHELLE NICHOLS CHRIS STEVENSON

United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres spoke seated next to Mr Lavrov in the UN Security Council. Mr Lavrov chaired the meeting because Russia holds the council’s monthly rotating presidency for April. “As during the Cold War, we have reached the dangerous, possibly even more dangerous, threshold,” Mr Lavrov said. “The situation is worsened with the loss of trust in multilateralism.”

Mr Guterres criticised Russia’s invasion for causing massive suffering and devastation in the country and fueling global economic dislocation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. “Tensions between major powers are at an historic high. So are the risks of conflict, through misadventure or miscalculation,” Mr Guterres told the meeting of the 15-member body on multilateralism and the founding UN Charter.

Mr Lavrov said: “Let’s call a spade a spade. Nobody allowed the Western minority to speak on behalf of all of humankind.”

A string of Security Council members, including the United States, France and Britain, condemned Russia for its war on Ukraine.

“Our hypocritical convenor today, Russia, invaded its neighbour Ukraine and struck at the heart of the UN Charter,” the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the council. “This illegal, unprovoked, and unnecessary war runs directly counter to our most sacred principle: that a war of aggression and territorial conquest is never, ever acceptable,” she said.