Four days after Vladimir Putin placed his country's nuclear deterrent forces on 'special' alert and a week after Moscow launched a brutal war against Ukraine, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian and foreign media: "It is clear that World War three can only be nuclear".
"I would like to point out that it is in the heads of Western politicians that the idea of a nuclear war is spinning constantly, and not in the heads of Russians," Lavrov declared.
"I assure you that we will not allow any provocations to throw us off balance," he added.
Watch: Russian minister warns of nuclear weapons in third World War; 'Won't let Ukraine get nukes'
Moscow has the world's largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and a huge cache of ballistic missiles which form the backbone of the country's deterrence forces.
{{/usCountry}}Moscow has the world's largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and a huge cache of ballistic missiles which form the backbone of the country's deterrence forces.
{{/usCountry}}Russia could also not tolerate what he said was a military threat from Ukraine, he said, adding that he was convinced that Russia was right over Ukraine.
Denying the speculations that Moscow was feeling politically isolated, Lavrov said that the question how Ukraine lives should be defined by its people.
The Ukrainian government has accused Russian forces of targeting civilians in the war that has now entered the eighth day. The Russian foreign minister has said that the troops have been given strict orders to use high-precision weapons to decimate military infrastructure.