Lavrov: Third World War Would Be Nuclear and Disastrous

By Staff, Agencies

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that if unleashed, a Third World War would be waged with the use of nuclear weapons and it would be disastrous.

Touching upon the situation in Ukraine in an interview with Al-Jazeera, he said that Moscow is preparing for the second round of talks with Kiev, but that the Ukrainian side is dragging its feet at the behest of Washington.

"We are ready for the second round of the negotiations, but the Ukrainian side is playing for time on the US' orders", Lavrov pointed out.

He spoke after Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian delegation will wait for the Ukrainian negotiators at the site of the talks late in the evening on Wednesday.

Peskov earlier confirmed that presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky remains the main Russian negotiator in Russia's talks with Ukraine.

The statement followed Russian and Ukrainian officials wrapping up the first round of talks in the Gomel region of Belarus on Monday. The talks are aimed at finding a way to end the Ukraine conflict.

Vladimir Medinsky told reporters that during the negotiations, the sides managed to find "some common points on which we predict common positions can be found". He said that the sides had agreed on the second round of negotiations, due in Belarus later this week.

He was echoed by Leonid Slutsky, a member of the Russian delegation and the head of the Duma's Committee on Foreign Affairs, who stressed that the sides had found "a number of important points on which progress can be reached".

"The Ukrainian delegation was ready to listen and participate in the most detailed discussion of the essence of the issues on today's agenda. The main result is that the negotiations themselves took place, that the parties heard each other", Slutsky said.