[imagesource: Russian Defence Ministry via AP]

Just make it swift.

I don’t want one of those long, drawn-out nuclear annihilations. Nobody has time for that.

Jokes aside, United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has warned that we are only one misstep and miscalculation away from the real threat of nuclear destruction.

Speaking at the opening of a nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference in New York, he said humanity faces “a nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War”.

The Guardian below:

Citing Russia’s war with Ukraine and tensions on the Korean peninsula and in the Middle East, Guterres said he feared that crises “with nuclear undertones” could escalate…

Guterres said the conference was “a chance to strengthen” the treaty and “make it fit for the worrying world around us”.

Ah, so that’s why New York City’s Emergency Management Department recently released a public service announcement on what to do in the case of a nuclear attack.

Guterres’ address was as sombre as those quotes make it out to be:

He went on to say that “eliminating nuclear weapons is the only guarantee they will never be used”.

At present, there are an estimated 13 000 nuclear weapons held in arsenals around the world, with a sizeable number of those tucked away in Russia at Vladimir Putin’s disposal.

…the US, Britain and France reaffirmed their commitment in a joint statement, saying a “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”.

The three also took aim at Russia – which announced it had placed its nuclear forces on alert shortly after its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February – and urged Moscow to respect its international commitments under the NPT.

Although he didn’t attend, Putin did send a letter to the conference.

In it, he stated that there can be “no winners” in a nuclear war and no such war should ever be started.

That’s pretty much how the rest of the world feels about the invasion of Ukraine, Vlad, and look where that has landed us.

[source:guardian]