US urges world to tell Russia to stop its nuclear threats

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23 (AP/Reuters): The United States (US) urged other nations to tell Russia to stop making nuclear threats and end "the horror" of its war in Ukraine as all three countries' top diplomats spoke - but didn't quite meet - at a high-profile UN Security Council meeting Thursday.

Held alongside the annual UN General Assembly gathering of world leaders, the session followed a striking development in the war this week: Russia called up a portion of its reserves for the first time since World War II. At the same time, President Vladimir Putin said his nuclear-armed country would "use all means available to us" to defend itself if its territory is threatened.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saw Putin's remark as particularly menacing given plans for referendums in Russian-controlled parts of eastern and southern Ukraine on whether to become part of Russia.

Western nations have condemned those votes as illegitimate and nonbinding. But, in their wake, Moscow might see any Ukrainian attempt to retake those areas as an attack on "Russian territory," Blinken warned.

"Every council member should send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately," he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov didn't mention his country's nuclear capacity or the new troop mobilization during his own remarks at the council meeting, which France called to discuss accountability for alleged abuses and atrocities during the nearly 7-month-long war.

Instead, Lavrov repeated his country's frequent claims that Kyiv has long oppressed Russian speakers in Ukraine's east - one of the explanations Moscow has offered for the invasion - and that Western support for Ukraine is a menace to Russia.

A Reuters report adds: Russia began referendums on Friday aimed at annexing four occupied regions of Ukraine, raising the stakes of the seven-month-old war in what Kyiv called an illegal sham that saw residents threatened with punishment if they did not vote.

The votes on whether the regions should become part of Russia began after Ukraine earlier this month recaptured large swathes of northeastern territory in a counteroffensive against the invasion that began on Feb. 24.

With Russian President Vladimir Putin also announcing a military draft this week to enlist 300,000 troops to fight in Ukraine, the Kremlin appears to be trying to regain the upper hand in the grinding conflict.

And by incorporating the four areas into Russia, Moscow could portray attacks to retake them as an attack on Russia itself, a warning to Kyiv and Western supporters.

Putin on Wednesday said Russia would "use all the means at our disposal" to protect itself, an allusion to nuclear weapons.

The war has already killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted millions and pummelled the global economy.