Russia says avoiding nuclear conflict is its ‘highest priority’

Russia has said preventing a military clash between nuclear powers is its “highest priority” and – despite recently making nuclear threats – called on other countries with such weapons to reaffirm their commitment to avoiding an atomic war.

The foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Russia “fully reaffirmed” its commitment to preventing nuclear war and avoiding an arms race under a joint statement signed with the US, UK, France and China in January.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly made veiled threats to use nuclear weapons as his eight-month invasion of Ukraine falters, as part of a strategy that western officials have said was designed to deter western military aid to Kyiv.

The rhetoric has alarmed western powers, particularly after Russia made baseless claims last week that Ukraine was developing a “dirty bomb” – a conventional weapon laced with radioactive material.

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Mr Putin repeated the warnings but then said there was “no military or political sense” in Russia using a nuclear weapon against Ukraine.

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday: “We are firmly convinced that in the current difficult, turbulent situation, which is the consequence of irresponsible and impudent actions aimed at undermining our national security, preventing any military clash between nuclear powers is the highest priority.”

Speaking in London, British defence secretary Ben Wallace said the Russian claim that Ukraine was developing a dirty bomb was completely untrue and that the UK, alongside the US and France, “absolutely felt the obligation to uphold the taboo” on using nuclear weapons.

“The claims by Russia of the preparation of a tactical nuclear weapon by Ukraine, or indeed facilitated by the United Kingdom or any other power, is not correct and is not true,” Mr Wallace told the House of Commons defence select committee.

“It would be abhorrent ... against international law and it would be totally unjustifiable. We have no intention of doing anything other than ... stating the truth about that,” said Mr Wallace.

Western officials have stepped up their monitoring of Russia’s nuclear readiness in recent months but have not reported any changes.

Ukraine has said Russia’s rhetoric was likely to be a bluff, aimed at convincing its western backers to pressure Kyiv into accepting an unfavourable peace deal on Moscow’s terms.

Ukrainian forces are advancing on the southern city of Kherson, the only provincial capital Russia has captured during the invasion – even though Mr Putin claimed it as part of Russia in a lavish annexation ceremony in late September.

Although Mr Putin vowed to use “all the means at our disposal” to defend territory he considers part of Russia, Ukraine has continued to beat back Russian forces, strengthening the convictions of some officials who think Moscow will not follow through on its threats.

“We want them to focus on stopping the war that is happening and the invasion that is happening, and not try and divert us and others, or into areas which are not relevant to the fact that they are invading Ukraine,” a western official said, adding that Russia’s efforts had so far found little success.

The Russian foreign ministry statement contained an implicit rebuke of western powers supplying advanced weapons to Ukraine, which Moscow has claimed is increasing the chances of a direct conflict between Russian and Nato forces.

In an apparent reference to the dirty bomb claims, it called on Ukraine’s western backers to “demonstrate their readiness to solve this priority and abandon dangerous attempts to undermine each others’ vital interests by balancing on the line of a direct armed conflict and encouraging provocations with weapons of mass destruction, which could lead to catastrophic consequences”.

Russia confirmed on Wednesday it would rejoin the Black Sea grain deal just days after it cut its participation due to a Ukrainian attack on the Russian Black Sea fleet.

In remarks reported by Russian state media, the Russian defence ministry said it had received written guarantees from Kyiv that Ukraine would not “use the grain corridor for combat actions against Russia”.

The decision is a dramatic about-face from the Kremlin in which Russia will return to the grain export deal with little to show in terms of concessions from Kyiv and the West.

The move was announced first by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Moscow’s humiliating climbdown came two days after a large convoy of ships moved a record amount of grain in defiance of Russia’s warnings that it would be “unsafe” without its participation, and after high-level diplomatic contacts between Turkey – one of the guarantors of the scheme with the UN – and Russia.

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022.

– Additional reporting: Guardian