Following several warnings from Russia, the US, and NATO on the risks of escalating the Ukraine crisis into a nuclear war, the Kremlin chastised Western leaders on Wednesday for using "provocative" nuclear rhetoric.
On September 21, President Vladimir Putin issued a warning to the West, stating that he would be prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia against what he called "nuclear blackmail" from significant Western states.
Joe Biden, the vice president of the United States, expressed scepticism that Putin would use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine despite warning that the world now faced the greatest threat of nuclear Armageddon since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
“We express our daily regret that Western heads of state, in the United States and Europe, engage in nuclear rhetoric every day,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of Biden’s interview with CNN.
“We consider this a very harmful and provocative practice,” Peskov said.
The NATO military alliance is proceeding with its annual nuclear preparedness exercise “Steadfast Noon” next week, in which NATO air forces practise the use of U.S. nuclear bombs based in Europe with training flights, without live weapons.
Peskov said that remarks by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who said that if Putin wins the war it would be a defeat for the West, showed that NATO was essentially fighting on Ukraine’s side.
Asked about the prospect of a Biden-Putin meeting, Peskov said there had been no attempt from either side to discuss a possible one.
“As far as I know, there have been no initiatives from either the Russian or the American side to organize contacts at the highest level,” Peskov said.