NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s statement about putting nuclear weapons on alert is another “escalation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Peskov said that Russia never initiates talks on nuclear weapons and that its officials only answer journalists’ questions on such topics.
“When President Vladimir Putin talks about this issue, military nuclear affairs, he answers someone’s questions, journalists’ questions, including foreign ones,” Peskov added.
He noted that Stoltenberg’s statement contradicts even the position expressed by the West at events such as the conference on Ukraine in Switzerland.
“What Mr. Stoltenberg said, clearly, does not fit into the context of the declaration that was adopted the day before (at the summit in Switzerland), which says, if I’m not mistaken, about the inadmissibility of such rhetoric,” Peskov emphasized yesterday.
Stoltenberg told the British newspaper “Telegraph” that NATO countries are consulting on “how many nuclear warheads should be operational and which should be stored.”
Commenting on the results of the summit on Ukraine, the final declaration of which was not signed by certain countries, including India and Saudi Arabia, Peskov said that they “aim for zero”.
In the final statement, he called for the resolution of issues such as the protection of the power plant in Zaporizhia, the renunciation of the use of nuclear weapons, the export of grain and the exchange of prisoners.
Peskov, however, says that the Russian peace proposal put forward by Putin last week remains in effect, and Moscow is open to constructive work and serious, substantive talks with all countries.
Commenting on the statements of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba about the necessity of inviting Russia to another summit on the Ukrainian solution, the Kremlin spokesman said that the approach of the Russian side is quite transparent and consistent and everyone knows it well, as well as Kuleba.
Peskov said that the support of a number of friendly countries to the final declaration of the summit will not affect their relations with Russia, but Moscow will take their position into account and continue to explain its position to them, BHRT writes.
E.Dz.
