Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that it is in the minds of Western politicians that the idea of nuclear war is constantly circulating, and not in the heads of Russians
Four days after Vladimir Putin put his country's nuclear deterrent forces on 'special' alert and a week after Moscow launched a brutal war against Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian and foreign media: "This It is clear that World War Three can only be nuclear".
"I would like to point out that it is in the minds of Western politicians that the idea of nuclear war is constantly circulating, and not in the heads of the Russians," Lavrov declared.
"I assure you that we will not allow any kind of provocation, which upsets our balance," he said.
Moscow has the world's largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and a large stockpile of ballistic missiles that form the backbone of the country's deterrence forces.
Russia also cannot tolerate what it said was a military threat from Ukraine, he said, adding that he was convinced Russia was right on Ukraine.
Dismissing speculation that Moscow felt politically isolated, Lavrov said the question of how Ukraine lives should be defined by its people.
The Ukrainian government has accused Russian forces of targeting civilians in a war that has now entered its eighth day. The Russian foreign minister has said that troops have been given strict orders to use high-precision weapons to destroy military infrastructure.