Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union who tried to ease tensions with the West, on Sunday warned of a colossal danger between Russia and the U.S. “as long as weapons of mass destruction exist.”
“All nations should declare, all nations, that nuclear weapons must be destroyed,” Gorbachev said during an interview with BBC’s Steve Rosenberg. “This is to save ourselves and our planet.”
Gorbachev has long warned against nuclear weapons and last year questioned President Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw from a Cold War treaty Gorbachev signed with President Ronald Reagan in 1987.
“Do they really not understand in Washington what this can lead to?” Gorbachev said in an interview with the Interfax News agency after Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
“All agreements aimed at nuclear disarmament and limiting nuclear weapons must be preserved, for the sake of preserving life on earth,” Gorbachev said.
He echoed that message Sunday.
“In different places, there are skirmishes, there is shooting, aircraft and ships are being sent here, there and everywhere. This is not the kind of situation we want.”
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