Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, responded to remarks by United States Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland about Moscow’s position on nuclear weapons in Ukraine. She dismissed Western cautions as a shift from a real problem to a non-existent one, calling them a political maneuver carried out through public messages on social media.
Zakharova cited Nuland’s interview with Ukrayinska Pravda, where Nuland suggested that President Putin had decided against deploying nuclear arms. She read these comments as another example of Washington publicly weighing Russia’s strategic choices, stressing that Moscow sees such statements as part of a broader information campaign rather than straightforward facts.
The spokeswoman accused Nuland of echoing a pattern she attributes to the American side: inflating the idea of a nuclear threat with help from allied media and think tanks, then portraying the issue as if the danger had shifted from an acute problem to a healthier one. According to Zakharova, the supposed victory over a nuclear scenario did not come from any Russian plan succeeding, but from what she described as strong warnings from Western partners. She asserted that the outcome was more about rhetoric than reality, insisting that a nuclear scenario was never allowed to unfold due to countermeasures and cautions from Moscow and its allies.
Zakharova also noted that more energy-related vessels had faced destruction than Western actions alone, arguing that the combined efforts of the United States and NATO had caused substantial damage to those assets. She framed these developments within a larger discussion of coercive tactics and strategic messaging used in the ongoing conflict, contending that both physical and informational pressure were employed together to shape perceptions and policy choices.
In another statement, Zakharova recalled Kyiv’s alleged intentions regarding the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, describing concerns about Ukraine taking steps that could affect the historic site. She warned that such moves would carry significant cultural and political repercussions, placing them within the broader context of regional security and the protection of religious heritage amid ongoing tensions.