UNITED NATIONS, August 22. /TASS/. The future of the humankind now depends on arms control dialogue with the United States, Russia's acting Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said on Thursday.

"We still believe that common sense and the instinct for self-preservation will get the upper hand among our Western partners. The very existence of humankind is now at stake," Polyansky said at an extraordinary meeting of the United Nations Security Council convened at Russia’s and China’s initiative following the United States’ recent missile tests.

He warned about the risks of an uncontrolled arms race. "Do you understand that because of the United States geopolitical ambitions, all of us are now one step away from an uncontrolled and unregulated arms race? We, for instance, are very worried about this prospect. But our American colleagues don’t seem to care about it," he said.

"We are bewildered at the position taken in this context by the European colleagues with misplaced stubbornness," Polyansky noted. "Don’t you see that saying ditto to the Americans you are retrieving, step by step, from historical non-existence, the situation when missiles were targeted from all around at European cities?"

He vowed that Moscow, "on its part, will never be the first to resort to such measures." "But bearing in mind that our American colleagues are obviously itching to flex muscles, we probably will not have to wait long to witness the above situation," he stressed.

On August 18, shortly after its withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the United States conducted a flight test of a land-based cruise missile that had been banned by that treaty as its range exceeded 500 kilometers. US officials had repeatedly said that such a test could be carried out in late August.

Apart from that, the US Department of Defense plans to test an intermediate-range land-based ballistic missile in November. According to Pentagon, it would be a Pershing-2-type missile. US Pershing-2 missiles had been destroyed under the INF Treaty by 1991.