MOSCOW, December 5. /TASS/. The push by the United States and NATO toward a military confrontation with Russia risks unleashing a direct conflict between nuclear powers with disastrous consequences, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned on Monday.

According to the readout of his video address to participants in the Moscow Nonproliferation Conference, posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website, "In the face of Western attempts to deter Russia, the push by the US and NATO in general effectively toward a military confrontation with us is a major risk. Obviously, it is fraught with a direct conflict between nuclear powers that may lead to disastrous consequences."

"We are forced to regularly send out our warning signals in this regard. But instead of taking them seriously, they are maliciously distorted in the West and we are accused of using 'threatening rhetoric'," Lavrov added.

According to the top diplomat, the Russian side proceeds from the fact that it is necessary to prevent any armed conflict between nuclear powers. "I would like to take this opportunity to confirm that the Russian side is firmly committed to the logic of the understandings that were enshrined in the joint documents of the five nuclear powers. In accordance with the declaration of the five powers on the inadmissibility of nuclear war, any armed conflict between countries possessing nuclear weapons must be prevented. Russia proceeds from this," the foreign minister pointed out.