Emergency workers clear up debris after an airstrike hit a tire shop in the western city of Lviv, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022.
Highlights
- The remark came amid reports that Kremlin might turn to tactical or other limited nuclear weapons
- Lavrov said that Russia & the US last year issued a statement that 'there must be no nuclear war'
- Zelensky recently said that there is a 'possibility' that Putin will use chemical weapons
Russia has said that it will not use nuclear arms against Ukraine and that it will use only conventional weapons, according to a report in Bloomberg. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia’s military operation has entered a new phase in the neighbouring country.
Russian Minister's remark came amid reports that the Kremlin might turn to tactical or other limited nuclear weapons if its invasion of Ukraine continues to struggle.
Lavrov said that Russia and the United States had last year issued a statement agreeing “there must be no nuclear war". Russia and the other four permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (US, UK, China and France) later adopted a similar stance.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this week had said that there is a “possibility” that Russian President Vladimir Putin will use chemical weapons in the war in Ukraine. “We shouldn’t wait for the moment when Russia decides to use nuclear weapons.We must prepare for that,” he had said,
Meanwhile, Russia on Tuesday launched its long-feared, full-scale offensive to take control of Ukraine's east. Zelensky said that the Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas.
The Donbas is Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognised by Russia.
In recent weeks, the Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war.
Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, three days after Putin recognised Ukraine's breakaway regions - Donetsk and Luhansk - as independent entities.
READ MORE: Russia warns Ukrainian forces to surrender 'immediately' as nuclear war threat grows
