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Russia said its delegation was ready Wednesday for the second round of peace talks with Ukraine — while giving a chilling warning that a third world war would certainly involve nuclear weapons.
The invading nation’s “delegation will be in place to await Ukrainian negotiators,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said — as Russian forces continued the devastating air and land assault for the seventh day.
Video footage showed yet another series of devastating bomb blasts Wednesday as Russian forces also claimed to have taken control of the area around Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia.
Peskov conceded that it was not yet clear if Ukraine would send its own delegation after its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, made clear that Russia must “first stop bombing people” before negotiations could continue.
Peskov said he could not “predict whether Ukrainian negotiators will show up or not” for the second round after the fruitless talks Monday.
“Let’s hope this happens. Our negotiators will be there and ready,” he said, confirming that culture adviser Vladimir Medinsky remains the main negotiator for Russia.
But while the Kremlin put on a more diplomatic public face, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sent a clear warning to the world just days after his president, Vladimir Putin, put his nuclear forces on high alert.
Lavrov said on Wednesday that if a third World War were to take place, it would involve nuclear weapons and be destructive, the RIA news agency reported.
Lavrov has said that Russia, which launched what it calls a special military operation against Ukraine last week, would face a “real danger” if Kyiv acquired nuclear weapons.
Lavrov has previously claimed that Russia was trying to stop Ukraine from obtaining nukes, despite Zelensky’s assurances that he had no intentions of doing so.
Peskov also said that the Russian government would consider all countries that introduce sanctions on the country to be “de facto unfriendly,” according to CNN.
The warning appeared to be just the latest threat from the Kremlin for the West to stay out of the war — as well as an attempted justification for Russia’s aggression.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued pressing into several major cities — including taking control around Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday it had received a letter from Russia saying personnel at the Zaporizhzhia plant continued their “work on providing nuclear safety and monitoring radiation in normal mode of operation.”
The letter claimed that “radiation levels remain normal,” the UN watchdog said.
Zaporizhzhia is the largest of Ukraine’s nuclear sites, with six out of the country’s 15 reactors.
Russia has already seized control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986.
The head of the UN watchdog, Rafael Grossi, told a special meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors on Wednesday that he is “gravely concerned” by the situation.
He said it’s “the first time a military conflict is happening amid the facilities of a large, established nuclear power program.”
Grossi noted that any action jeopardizing the safe operation of nuclear facilities or the safety of radioactive material “could have severe consequences, aggravating human suffering and causing environmental harm.”
Bombs also continued to rip through the heart of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv — including the police headquarters — while the 40-mile convoy of tanks and military vehicles pressed ever closer to capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials still tallying the feared death toll Wednesday.
With Post wires
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