Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has warned about the risk of a nuclear exchange with the U.S, the consequences of which would be "catastrophic."
He also suggested that Russia resuming nuclear weapons tests was a possibility in comments that come amid heightened tensions amid Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian president recently updated Moscow's nuclear doctrine, lowering the threshold for an unconventional strike. Putin also boasted about an Oreshnik intermediate-range missile that struck Dnipro, after the U.S. allowed Kyiv to use longer-range ATACMS missiles to hit Russian territory.
In an interview with the state-run Tass news agency, Ryabkov was asked about a video simulation widely disseminated by Russian media showing the consequences of an American missile attack on Moscow.
The video was from the YouTube channel Science Time but was presented by Russian regional media outlets as if it had been created in response to the firing of the Oreshnik, independent Russian news outlet Agentstvo reported.
"This is not the first time that this kind of events has been modeled," Raybkov told Tass. "Unfortunately, this danger exists but we will do our best to avoid such a catastrophic scenario," adding that "not everything depends on us."
"The key question is how our adversaries will behave, whether they will continue to move in the direction of the scenarios that are described in Russia's military doctrine," he added, referring to the updated nuclear decree.
Ryabkov was also asked if Russia was considering resuming nuclear weapons tests for first time since 1990 and the deputy foreign minister replied, "this is a question at hand" as he referred to how "the situation is quite difficult."
"It is constantly being considered in all its components and in all its aspects," he added. Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment.
Ryabkov said in September that Moscow would not conduct a test as long as the United States refrained from carrying one out.
Putin signed a law in 2023 that withdrew Moscow's ratification of the global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests which the Russian leader said brought the country in line with the United States, which has signed but never ratified the treaty.
In a separate question about the U.S. allowing Ukraine to launch ATACMS in Russian territory, Ryabkov said, "we have all the necessary means to counter these strikes."
"Air defense systems are effective," he said. "We have extensive countermeasures to bring our adversaries to their senses."
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