Lavrov Escalates Nuclear Rhetoric Following US Movement On New UKR Aid

Wires carrying comments from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appearing to escalate nuclear rhetoric. The comments come after the United States House of Representatives approved a USD$60 bln package of aid to Ukraine, and ahead of a trip to China from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken where he is expected to warn of the consequences of Beijing's continued, "support for Russia’s defense industrial base."

• Lavrov: “US and NATO are obsessed with the idea of inflicting 'strategic defeat' on Russia... West is teetering dangerously on the brink of a direct military clash between nuclear powers."
• Lavrov adds that the, “West's three nuclear powers are the key sponsors of the 'criminal Kyiv' regime," noting that Russia sees, "serious strategic risks that could lead to an increase in the level of nuclear danger.”
• A senior Biden Administration official told reporters yesterday, on Blinken's trip to China: "...the concern there is that through Chinese support, Russia has largely reconstituted its defense industrial base... We’ll express those concerns to China and we will express our intent to have China curtail that support which is having – which is starting to pose, of course, such a threat to European security."
• The US Senate is expected to take up the Ukraine aid package on Tuesday. After approval of the package, transfer of weapons from US stocks in Eastern Europe are expected to begin immediately, replenishing major shortfalls in missile defence systems which have hindered Kyiv for months and handed a battlefield advantage to Russia.