MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/. Russia insists on the release of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was captured and taken from Venezuela to the US, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS in an interview.

"The first step, without which everything else remains purely hypothetical, is the release of Maduro and his wife," the senior diplomat said, responding to a question about whether Russia would be prepared to grant Maduro asylum if he were to be released. "But since this [the capture] has happened, it is necessary to insist on the release of the Venezuelan president," Ryabkov noted.

"What the further disposition will be is a separate question. And now there is simply no reason to talk about it," the deputy foreign minister added.

On January 5, leaving the courtroom in Lower Manhattan, Maduro shouted that he was a prisoner of war. Ryabkov declined to comment on whether Russia agreed with Maduro's self-identification.

On January 3, the US attacked civilian and military targets in Venezuela. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto said that the US had attacked civilian and military targets in Caracas. He called Washington's actions military aggression. US President Donald Trump confirmed that his country had launched large-scale strikes on Venezuela. According to him, Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were captured and taken out of the country. They were taken to the US and are currently being held in a detention center in New York.