Russia Warns US Over Nuclear Tensions as Ukraine Regains Ground

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov today called on the United States to abandon pressure as a form of politics and warned that nuclear tensions are not easing worldwide, ahead of the Russian-US summit to be held on August 15 in Alaska.

“The back-and-forth, the impulsive actions, the pressure… we see a tendency in Washington to act through pressure. But I think now is the time to give politicians and diplomats a chance to speak,” he commented on public television.

Ryabkov stressed that “political will is needed at this time to reduce the temperature of these heated international relations.”

“At least, in the dialogue with the United States, some green shoots of common sense are emerging, which have been sorely lacking in recent months and years,” he emphasized.

The diplomat admitted that “the risk of nuclear conflict remains” and that strategic tensions “are not diminishing.”

“We are not the initiators of escalatory steps. We have taken countermeasures, and we will continue to do so from now on,” he stressed after Moscow lifted the moratorium on the INF Treaty on the elimination of short- and intermediate-range missiles.