The Russians aren’t buying any of the claims and backpedaling about recent remarks made by both U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, regarding the proximity of nuclear war. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in an address to a session of the United Russia party, said that Zelenskyy’s call for nuclear strikes on Russia justify the special military operation Russia is carrying out in Ukraine. “Yesterday, Zelenskyy urged his Western overlords to deliver a preemptive nuclear strike on Russia. By doing so, this person essentially showed the entire world more evidence of the threats emanating from the Kiev regime and why the special military operation was launched to neutralize [that],” he said.
Lavrov laughed off the maneuvers by Zelenskyy’s various aides who sought to downplay and reinterpret the Ukrainian President’s comment. “We all remember how back in January he was talking about Ukraine’s aspiration to obtain nuclear weapons. Turns out, this idea is thoroughly stuck in his head,” he said.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow wants to hear the assessments of Zelenskyy’s mindless call to carry out a “preemptive nuclear strike” on Russia from Western capitals. “We, of course, remain open for a serious conversation with the French side on the widest array of international and bilateral agenda, based on mutual respect and consideration of each other’s interests—security, first of all,” she said in response to French government spokesman Olivier Veran, who said on Oct. 7 that France maintains dialogue channels with Russia in order to rule out a nuclear catastrophe. “But today it is the West who irresponsibly speculates on the nuclear topic, accusing Russia of nuclear blackmailing. Meanwhile, on February 25 this year, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian noted that the ‘Atlantic alliance is also a nuclear alliance,’ hinting towards NATO’s readiness to use nuclear weapons. So who, I ask, is waving the ‘nuclear baton’?”
