MOSCOW, October 11. /TASS/. France and other Western countries are irresponsibly speculating on the nuclear issue, blaming Moscow for using "nuclear blackmail," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Tuesday.
"French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian made a strong statement that ‘the North Atlantic bloc is also a nuclear alliance,’ hinting to NATO’s preparedness to use nuclear weapons, so since they are talking about ‘nuclear blackmail,’ they should reread what their colleagues said earlier," Zakharova noted. "We would like to hear Paris and other Western capitals make more principled assessments of [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky’s reckless and irresponsible call for a preventive nuclear strike on Russia," she added.
French government spokesman Olivier Veran stated earlier that France and other Western countries sought to use the remaining diplomatic channels to maintain dialogue with Russia in order to make sure that the conflict in Ukraine did not take a disastrous turn. Zakharova commented on Veran’s remark by saying that after the launch of Russia’s special military operation, France had unilaterally reduced political cooperation and dialogue on the majority of important issues to the lowest level possible.
The Russian diplomat stressed that Moscow remained open to a serious conversation based on mutual respect and the consideration of each other’s interests but "the West keeps irresponsibly speculating on the nuclear issue, blaming Russia for using ‘nuclear blackmail’."