Russia rules out nuclear conflict with US

KABUL (Pajhwok): Russia has ruled out a full-blown nuclear war with the United States, despite tensions between the two nations over the Ukraine conflict.

Addressing a conference at the Diplomatic Academy on the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a top Russian diplomat discounted the threat of a nuclear war with the US.

TASS news agency quoted Anatoly Antonov, Russian ambassador to the US, as saying: “I would like to believe that despite all the difficulties, we have not approached the dangerous threshold of falling into the abyss of a nuclear conflict with the Americans.”

Russia remained committed to the principle that there could be no winners in a nuclear conflict, the ambassador said, cautioning against the launch of such a war.

The envoy accused the US has of having torpedoed efforts at arms control in recent decades. “Prospects for future agreements on strategic stability remain dim.”

PAN Monitor/mud