Russia warned the United States on Wednesday to stop “escalating tensions” over Ukraine, but said it would keep Washington informed about test missile launches to avoid “dangerous mistakes.”
The comments by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov indicated that Moscow, which last week approved a new policy that lowered its threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, was seeking to keep communication channels open at a time of intense tensions with the US. Wants.
Ryabkov was speaking six days after Russia launched a new medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile called Oreshnik against Ukraine – something he said sent a clear message to the West.
State media quoted Ryabkov as saying, “The signal is very clear and unambiguous – stop, you should not do this any more, you should not give Kiev everything they want, do not encourage them to new military exploits, They are very dangerous.” That being said.
“The current (US) administration must stop this cycle of escalating tensions,” Ryabkov said. “They have to do that, otherwise the situation will become very dangerous for everyone, including the United States.”
President Vladimir Putin said last week that Russia fired the Oreshnik in response to Ukraine’s earlier use of American ATACMS ballistic missiles and British Storm Shadow cruise missiles to attack Russian territory with Western permission.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s use of the new missile – which Kiev said reached a speed of 13,600 kilometers per hour (8,450 mph) – amounted to a “clear and serious escalation” in war and This should be strongly condemned across the world.
The US military said the missile was experimental and that Russia probably only has a few of them.
‘Very dangerous situation’
The Kremlin has said that Russia was technically not obliged to warn the United States about the Orasonic launch because it was intermediate-range rather than intercontinental, but Moscow notified the United States 30 minutes before the launch anyway. Had done.
Ryabkov was quoted as saying, “I’m sure you understand that this was a stabilizing factor in the dangerous situation in which we currently find ourselves. We are committed to this exercise and we hope that the United States will also Will be committed to this.” ,
“And we also hope that actions like this will help reduce the risk of miscalculations or dangerous mistakes.”
In a separate development on Wednesday, Russia’s state news agency TASS quoted an official as saying Moscow was continuing work to put its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile – part of its strategic nuclear arsenal – on combat duty.
The Sarmat is designed to deliver nuclear weapons to attack targets thousands of miles away in the United States or Europe, but its development has been hampered by delays and test failures.
In September, weapons experts said Russia appeared to have suffered a catastrophic failure in the missile’s latest test, leaving a deep crater in the launch silo.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
