Russia never threatened to use nuclear weapons, follows 'logic of deterrence': Kremlin

Russian Federation has never threatened anyone with nuclear weapons and its approach to the issue of their use is solely for deterrence, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday. In a statement, Maria Zakharova emphasised that statement regarding Moscow's potential use of the mass destruction weapons can only “arouse bewilderment”. Notably, Ukraine was once the third-largest nuclear power in the world, however, gave up its arsenal after the west made certain security guarantees in return. 

“The statements made one day before the Conference of the [TPNW] States Parties in the context of the Ukrainian conflict regarding ‘mutual threats to use nuclear weapons,’ as well as individual statements from the rostrum of the conference about Russia’s alleged ‘nuclear blackmail’ cannot but arouse bewilderment. We emphasize again: no ‘nuclear threats’ have ever been and are not heard from Russia,” the statement read.

'Effective in preventing nuclear clashes' 

Zakharova also stressed the fact that nuclear weapons were a great way to deter rivals from attacking. “Whether someone likes it or not, as long as nuclear weapons exist, the logic of deterrence remains an effective way to prevent nuclear clashes and large-scale wars,” she said. The Russian official also warned other nations against distorting Russian policy for propaganda.

"Distortion for propaganda purposes of the essence of Russian policy in this area -- which is based on the postulate of the inadmissibility of nuclear war -- is absolutely unacceptable," Zakharova said in her statement.

This comes days after Kremlin stated that the Putin administration was interested in talks with the US about nuclear weapons, but added that such conversations were unlikely to take place at this moment. Kremlin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov told reporters on June 6, "We are interested and believe that continued negotiations and discussions on this topic, given the tectonic shifts that we are seeing... the whole world needs these kinds of talks." Notably, since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Putin and other Russian leaders have threatened to use nuclear weapons on the United States and its NATO allies if they choose to intervene directly in the conflict. Russia Ukraine was now entered its fifth month

(Image: AP)