Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the West on Monday not to underestimate the "serious" and "real" risks of a third world war by getting involved in the war in Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the West on Monday not to underestimate the "serious" and "real" risks of a third world war by getting involved in the war in Ukraine.

Lavrov portrayed Russia as a nation striving to reduce any risk of nuclear war.

In contrast, Lavrov said NATO had "in essence engaged in war" with Russia by supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine.

Responding to Lavrov's comments, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted they were a bluff to "scare the world off supporting Ukraine."

Lavrov has previously issued veiled warnings about nuclear war in light of the invasion of Ukraine.

In early March, two weeks after President Vladimir Putin placed Russia's nuclear forces on high alert, Lavrov said that if World War III were to take place, it would involve nuclear weapons.

He later downplayed the possibility of the war in Ukraine escalating to nuclear war but accused the US and NATO of continually bringing up the topic.

While the US and UK are now sending advanced weapons and artillery to Ukraine, there appears to have been no official change in Russia's nuclear posture since February.

Lavrov has been described as a propaganda mouthpiece for Putin. He claimed in March that Russia "did not attack Ukraine" and justified a Russian strike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol by saying that the facility had been taken over by a Ukrainian neo-Nazi militia battalion.