‘Catastrophic’ if Ukraine-Russia crisis escalates into war: UN chief

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday said it would be “catastrophic” if the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine were to escalate into a war. 

Addressing the opening ceremony of the Munich Security Conference, which Russia skipped this year, Guterres said, “With a concentration of Russian troops around Ukraine, I am deeply concerned about heightened tensions and increased speculation about a military conflict in Europe.”

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“It would be catastrophic,” if that were to happen, he said, adding, “There is no alternative to diplomacy.” 

Guterres also said the world is a more dangerous place now than during the Cold War era. Tensions between Russia and the western NATO allies are at their highest point since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and Guterres warned that even a slight miscommunication between major players will have disastrous consequences. 

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“I am often asked whether we are in a new Cold War,” Guterres said in his opening speech at an annual security conference in Munich. “My answer is that the threat to global security now is more complex and probably higher than at that time.”

During the decades-long standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 20th century, “there were mechanisms that enabled the protagonists to calculate risks and use back-channels to prevent crises,” Guterres said. “Today, many of those systems no longer exist and most of the people trained to use them are no longer here with us.”

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But he said he still believes the buildup of Russian troops around Ukraine won’t result in a military conflict.

“I urge all parties to be extremely careful with their rhetoric. Public statements should aim to reduce tensions, not inflame them,” Guterres said.

The Munich Security Conference was attended by US Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and others.

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However, there was no senior official present from Russia, with Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock saying Moscow missed an opportunity. 

In a statement, she said that it was important for Russian representatives to attend the conference in Munich, adding that even a small step towards peace would be “better than a big step towards war”.