UNITED NATIONS, October 3./TASS/. The West’s military support for Ukraine risks escalation of the conflict, which may bring about a direct confrontation of nuclear nations with disastrous consequences, Konstantin Vorontsov, Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry’s Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control, said at the First Committee of the UN General Assembly on Monday.

"The West is becoming increasingly more determined to pursue the course of an open confrontation with Russia, which has resulted in the crisis around Ukraine," the diplomat said.

"Statements about the need to defeat us on the battlefield and strategically, pumping the criminal Kiev regime with weapons, including advanced missile systems, providing intelligence and earmarking military and civilian targets that we defend, the direct involvement of Western advisors and mercenaries in hostilities, leading to the deaths of Russian soldiers and officers as well as civilians - all this brings the West extremely close to becoming a party to an armed conflict with our country," the diplomat emphasized.

"This is likely to escalate all the way up to a direct military clash of nuclear powers with all the ensuing disastrous consequences," Vorontsov said. "We consider this policy irresponsible and destructive. It seems that the US and other NATO countries have come to believe that they can fully control the escalation they are triggering and manage it without the damage to themselves. This is an extremely dangerous illusion," Vorontsov stressed.