Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has said nuclear weapons pose a “colossal danger” amid tensions between Russia and the West.
He urged “all nations” to declare that the weapons should be destroyed in order to “save ourselves and our planet”.
Mr Gorbachev, 88, led the Soviet Union from 1985 until its collapse in 1991 and was instrumental in ending the Cold War with the US. In recent years he has been a vocal advocate for denuclearisation.
Last year he criticised US president Donald Trump for pulling out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which he and Ronald Reagan signed in 1987.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Gorbachev said: “As long as weapons of mass destruction exist, primarily nuclear weapons, the danger is colossal.
“All nations should declare that nuclear weapons should be destroyed. This is to save ourselves and our planet.”
Asked to describe relations between Russia and the US, Mr Gorbachev said they were “chilly, but still a war”.
He added: “Look at what is happening. In different places there are skirmishes, there is shooting. Aircraft and ships are being sent here, there and everywhere.”
He also spoke of the Soviet Union’s reaction to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 which led to the reunification of Germany.
“There mustn’t be bloodshed. We couldn’t allow that, over an issue of such magnitude for Germany, for us, Europe, the whole world. So, we declared we would not interfere.”
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