Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said the actions of Western nations have "intensified geopolitical rivalry" and the "risks of military confrontation between nuclear powers are heightening," the Russian News Agency TASS reported on Friday.
Tensions between the West and Russia have been high since President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Despite consistent calls for a deescalation, the war shows little signs of slowing as it enters its third year. The security council secretary accused Western countries of attacking the ideology and values in Russia and Belarus by seeking to punish the two nations via economic sanctions and destabilize them politically.
"Amid increased conflict behavior and intensified geopolitical rivalry, global risks of a military confrontation between large players, including nuclear powers, are heightening," Shoigu said.
Russia and the U.S. have by far the most nuclear weapons, with both nations holding over 5,000 nuclear warheads, according to the Federation of American Scientists. China, North Korea, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, France, and Israel are the other nations possessing nuclear weapons, although Israel does not confirm or deny its capabilities.
Rhetoric of a wider conflict hit a peak in November when Ukraine targeted a Russian weapons arsenal using long-range U.S.-made ATACMS missiles. Putin said the use of such missiles constitutes a redline and marked a major escalation on what was then the 1,000th day of the war. The Associated Press reported that Putin responded by formally lowering the country’s threshold for use of nuclear weapon, allowing for a potential nuclear response by Russia, even to a conventional attack.
Shoigu warned in his interview that the West's efforts to weaken international organizations puts global stability at risk.
"The WTO, the WHO, the OPCW, and other international organizations are being actively devalued," the senior Russian security official lamented. "Attempts are being made to undermine global efforts toward preventing an arms race in space and turn outer space into a new sphere of military confrontation.
"These actions are directly aimed at weakening our countries as they pursue the goal of depriving us of our sovereignty and right to choose our own path of development and realize strategic interests."
President Donald Trump has said he wants the war over and on Friday laid blame on Putin when asked if a peace agreement was in the making. The president said that while he loves the Russian people, he has no choice but to enforce sanctions if the war does not end.
"We can do it the easy way, or the hard way — and the easy way is always better," Trump said this week on Truth Social.
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