MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/. The United States and its allies are teetering on the brink of an open military conflict with Moscow, which would be fraught with nuclear tensions, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Tuesday.

"After provoking an escalation of the Ukrainian crisis and unleashing a violent hybrid confrontation with Russia, Washington and its allies are dangerously teetering on the brink of an open military confrontation with our country, which means a direct armed conflict between nuclear powers. Clearly, such a confrontation would be fraught with nuclear escalation," the statement reads.

Zakharova also slammed Japan’s attempts to paint Russia as a country that made nuclear threats. "It is unacceptable to try to distort the logic of deterrence, which is what Russia’s official statements on nuclear issues are based on, for propaganda reasons, as well as to depict us as a country threatening to use nuclear weapons," she stressed.

The Russian diplomat added that the tone and focus of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s remarks on the nuclear weapons issue were perplexing. "We have taken note of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s recent anti-Russian remarks, including his controversial statements on the nuclear weapons issue. Their focus and tone are puzzling. In particular, in order to justify the move to choose Hiroshima as the host city of a G7 summit, a remark was made that there was no better alternative to the city in a situation where "Russia’s use of nuclear weapons and nuclear threats are becoming a reality’," the statement added.