Russia says it has not threatened to use nuclear weapons

MADRID, 20 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoli Antonov, has assured this Thursday that no authority in the country has threatened to use nuclear weapons.

"Frankly, we have long ceased to be surprised by the empty and irresponsible accusations that our country allegedly threatens to use nuclear weapons. No one in the Russian political and military leadership has ever spoken in this way," Antonov said.

According to the Russian diplomat, Washington has unleashed an all-out hybrid war against Moscow, arguing that "they are taking advantage of NATO partners" by "forcing" countries to invest money in military financing.

"The defense industry has not seen so much money even during the Cold War," he said, in statements to the media collected by the TASS news agency.

However, the former Russian president and current vice president of the country's Security Council, Dimitri Medvedev, warned on Thursday that a Russian defeat in the war with Ukraine "could lead to the outbreak of a nuclear war."

Minutes later, the Kremlin spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, stated that these statements by Medvedev do not imply changes in Russia's defensive doctrine, as reported by the Russian news agency Interfax. "This is completely in line with our nuclear doctrine. Read the nuclear doctrine, there are no contradictions", he has concluded.