MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. Russia has no intention to backtrack from the principle of the inadmissibility of an armed conflict between nuclear powers, but allows for a nuclear response solely as a counter-measure to any aggression involving weapons of mass destruction, Russian Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesman Ivan Nechayev told a press briefing on Thursday.
"For its part, [Russia] is committed to the principle that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it must never be unleashed as was enshrined in the joint statement by the presidents of Russia and the United States on strategic stability at the Geneva summit on June 16, 2021," the diplomat stressed.
"The Russian military doctrine allows for a nuclear response only as a reaction to aggression involving the use of weapons of mass destruction or when the state’s existence is endangered," he pointed out.
As the Russian diplomat specified, "Russia can employ its nuclear arsenal only as a response to an attack as part of self-defense in extraordinary circumstances."
"Russia has never indulged in saber-rattling, let alone with nuclear arms," he emphasized.
"However, the events in Ukraine when the Americans and their allies have been involved up to their eyeballs, supplying the Kiev regime with various arms, including heavy firepower and strike weapons, vividly show that a confrontation with the collective West is quite real," the diplomat cautioned.