Peskov spoke on Tuesday at the United Nations (UN) Disarmament Conference in Geneva via videoconference, given the impossibility of traveling to Switzerland due to the closure of European airspace to Russia.

In his speech, he warned that Russia considers it unacceptable that US nuclear weapons are emplaced in the territories of several European countries, contrary to the fundamental provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

According to Lavrov, it is high time that those US weapons be brought home and all associated infrastructure in Europe dismantled.

He stated that the Kiev authorities started a dangerous game and threaten the security of Ukraine’s neighboring countries as well as the international with their plans to develop their own nuclear weapons.

For Lavrov, the “irresponsible statements” of the Ukrainian side about the intentions to acquire nuclear weapons are not “empty bravado”. He recalled that Ukraine has Soviet nuclear technologies and means to develop weapons.

He assured that Moscow cannot fail to respond to the real danger posed by Ukraine’s acquisition of said weapons. “I can assure you that Russia, as a responsible member of the international community, committed to its obligations of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, is taking all necessary measures to prevent the appearance of nuclear weapons and appropriate technologies in Ukraine,” he said.

The head of Russian diplomacy considered that “the tragedy in Ukraine is the result of the permissiveness of Western sponsors with the criminal regime formed in Kiev after the bloody coup that took place back in February 2014.

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