Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sees a real danger of the outbreak of a third world war.

In an interview on Russian television, he also made it clear that he considers NATO arms deliveries to Ukraine to be legitimate targets for his country.

A good two months after the start of the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin received UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Moscow on Tuesday.

The danger of a third world war is "serious, it is real, it must not be underestimated," Lavrov said in the interview that the Foreign Ministry shared on its Telegram channel on Monday evening.

At the same time, he explained that he did not want the risks to be artificially inflated any further in such a situation.

There are many sides that want that, he said, without being specific.

The inadmissibility of a nuclear war remains the principle position of Russia.

Lavrov: NATO arms shipments are legitimate targets

Asked about a comparison of the current situation with the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Lavrov said that there were few written rules at the time.

But the "rules of conduct" were pretty clear - Moscow knew how Washington was going to behave, and Washington was clear how Moscow was going to behave.

Even today there are few rules, Lavrov said, referring to the New Start nuclear disarmament treaty.

But "at the same time, all other arms control and non-proliferation instruments are virtually destroyed."

Russia sees NATO arms shipments to Ukraine as legitimate targets for its country.

"Of course, these weapons will be a legitimate target for Russian forces," Lavrov said in the interview.

Camps, including those in western Ukraine, have become such targets more than once.

"How could it be otherwise," Lavrov continued.

"If NATO goes into a de facto war with Russia through a proxy and arms that proxy, then you do in war what you have to do in war."

Lavrov accused the United States and Britain of slowing down negotiations with Ukraine.

We know for sure that "neither London nor Washington" would advise Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to speed up negotiations, he said in the interview.

"They always advise Zelenskyy to tighten his position."

Zelenskyj: Russia will achieve nothing in this war

According to Ukrainian President Selenskyj, Moscow will not be successful in its war of aggression in Ukraine.

Within two months, the Russian armed forces deployed more than 1,100 rockets, countless aerial bombs and artillery.

Some Ukrainian places had been destroyed to the ground, said Selenskyj in his evening video speech, which was published on Telegram on Tuesday night.

"But they have achieved nothing.

And they will achieve nothing.”

Meanwhile, according to Russian officials, there has been another shelling in the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine.

This time the village of Zhuravlevka was hit;

At least two people were injured, said the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, on Monday in his channel on the social network Telegram.

The region, which according to the authorities has been shelled several times, borders on the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also significantly disrupted agricultural production in Ukraine.

The grain harvest this year is expected to be around 20 percent lower than 2021 due to reduced sown areas after the invasion, the British Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence update on Monday evening.

Ukraine is the world's fourth largest producer and exporter of agricultural goods, it said.

A reduced grain supply from Ukraine will create inflationary pressures and push up the global grain price.

At the same time, the UN World Food Program (WFP) is urging trade routes for grain from the war-torn Ukraine to be kept open.

The UN institution assumes that only around half of the previous year's amount of wheat can be harvested.

SPD politician Roth believes EU sanctions against Schröder are possible

SPD politician Michael Roth does not rule out EU sanctions against former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

"Another indication of the tragedy of the Schröder case is that we must seriously discuss sanctions against a former Chancellor who has become a Russian energy lobbyist," said the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag of the German Press Agency.

“The European Union has to keep checking who is jointly responsible for this war, who justifies and defends it or plays it down.

Ultimately, the EU must decide on this.”

A good two months after the start of the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin received UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Moscow on Tuesday.

In addition to a greater diplomatic role for the United Nations, the meeting in the Kremlin is likely to focus primarily on humanitarian access for the UN and safe escape routes for civilians, for example from the besieged city of Mariupol.

At the invitation of the United States, representatives of numerous countries discussed the Ukraine war at the Ramstein Air Force Base in Rhineland-Palatinate on Tuesday.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin invited around 40 countries, among the participants were Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

One goal of the consultations is the lasting security and sovereignty of Ukraine, it said.