Nuclear war? Russia's Lavrov says: I don't believe so

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday he did not believe that Russia's standoff with the West over Ukraine would lead to nuclear war.

"I don't want to believe, and I do not believe, that a nuclear war could start," Lavrov told reporters when asked if there would be a nuclear war.

Lavrov was speaking after talks in Turkey with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.


He said that rumours of a potential Russian attack against the former Soviet Baltic states "appear to be old hoaxes".