The US says the world’s five nuclear powers are “on the brink of armed conflict” while accusing the West of “encouraging provocations”. The Russian Foreign Ministry claimed in a statement on Wednesday that avoiding a nuclear conflict was its first priority. Western capitals have said Moscow is behind a surge in nuclear rhetoric since its invasion of Ukraine in February – most recently repeatedly accusing Kyiv of planning to use a radioactive “dirty bomb” without offering evidence. Kyiv has denied having such a plan. Russia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday it feared the five declared nuclear powers were drifting “to the brink of direct armed conflict” and that the West should stop “encouraging provocations with weapons of mass destruction, which could lead to catastrophic consequences.” “We are convinced that in the present complicated and turbulent situation, caused by irresponsible and impertinent actions aimed at undermining our national security, the most immediate task is to avoid any military conflict of nuclear forces,” the ministry said in a statement.
read more
Moscow said it stood by a joint statement issued jointly with the United States, China, Britain and France in January, reaffirming their shared responsibility to avoid a nuclear war. “We fully reaffirm our commitment to the joint statement of the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states to prevent nuclear war and avoid an arms race from January 3, 2022,” the ministry said. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly appeared to threaten nuclear attack in connection with the war in Ukraine, and Moscow has repeatedly said its military doctrine allows for the use of nuclear weapons if Russia’s territorial integrity is threatened. In September, Putin said he was “not bluffing” when he said Russia was ready to use “all available means” to defend its territory. He also said the United States set a “precedent” at the end of World War II when it dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. Shortly thereafter, Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen region and a key Putin ally, called on Russia to use a “low-yield nuclear weapon” in Ukraine. Moscow also frequently accuses Kyiv of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and claimed at the start of the war that the western NATO alliance planned to use Ukraine as a bridgehead to threaten Russia – claims denied by Ukraine and NATO. Last week, President Putin oversaw a military exercise in Russia that the Russian Defense Ministry said was intended to simulate a “massive nuclear strike.”
