UNITED NATIONS, August 9. /TASS/. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres welcomed Russia’s and the United States’ aspiration for dialogue on arms control on the 76th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

"I welcome the reaffirmation by the United States and the Russian Federation that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, and their commitment to engage in arms control dialogue," he noted.

According to the UN chief, even 76 years after the bombing of Nagasaki, "we continue to dwell in the shadow of the mushroom cloud." "Prospects for the use of nuclear weapon are as dangerous as at any time since the height of the Cold War," he stressed.

"I call on all parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to use the forthcoming Tenth Review Conference to reinforce the norm against nuclear weapons and take steps toward their elimination," Guterres added.

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped a four-tonne uranium bomb codenamed Little Boy on Hiroshima. The explosion instantly killed at least 70,000 people. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing 70,000 and razing the city to the ground. About 3,000 people who survived the US atomic bombings have died in Japan over the past year, while the total number of victims has reached 189,000.