Hints of a Cold War “nuclear” confrontation, even with the United States, the director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) dropped on Thursday Sergey Naryskin, warning that Washington is “trying to bring imbalance to the international security system” in the nuclear sector.

Speaking at a conference marking the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s first nuclear bomb test, Naryskin described the United States as a “Western totalitarian-liberal regime” that believes in its “impunity” in imposing its will on other countries and the nuclear sphere.

According to the TASS news agency, Naryskin, who has been head of the SVR since 2016, criticized Washington’s withdrawal from nuclear accords, including the 1972 US-Soviet Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) of 2015 that limits Iran’s nuclear program to peaceful purposes. Then-President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the JCPA in 2018.

The Russian official said the US test on May 14 with a subcritical mass, “is cause for concern”. The US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration said in May that the experiment was carried out within nuclear explosives testing limits 1,000 feet below ground at a facility in Nevada.

Naryskin admitted that “the test was not a full nuclear test and formally, it does not violate either the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty or the US nuclear test moratorium,” which prohibits the testing of nuclear explosives.

“However, it clearly shows that the US wants to show just that “nuclear sledgehammer” with which US President Harry Truman had tried to intimidate the Soviet Union in 1945,” he said, referring to the atomic bombs dropped by the Americans on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the nuclear arms “race” that followed during the Cold War.

The Russian official explained that US nuclear policy and intimidation “didn’t work then, and it won’t work now”, adding that the lessons of World War II and the Cold War are “quickly forgotten by those who find it beneficial”.

It is noted that Moscow recently revised its nuclear doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons.

Putin regime ‘threatens world with nuclear annihilation’

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s mission to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) stressed that Monday’s attack by Russia on energy infrastructure was aimed at paralyzing the operation of electricity facilities.

“It’s a deliberate decision of the Putin regime to threaten the world with nuclear destruction,” said Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelensky, on Telegram messenger.

Russia’s defense ministry said on Monday it had hit power substations in nine regions of Ukraine and gas compressor stations in three regions. The IAEA urged both sides to refrain from fighting around nuclear plants to avoid a “catastrophic incident” and IAEA chief Rafael Grossi warned after visiting Russia’s Kursk nuclear plant on Tuesday that there was a risk of a nuclear accident there.

The Netherlands allows Ukraine to use F-16s over Russia

Meanwhile, in a move expected to further anger Moscow, the Netherlands allowed Ukraine to use its F-16 fighter jets over Russian territory. “We did not impose any restrictions on the use and flight range of the F-16s as long as the law of war is respected,” Dutch Armed Forces Commander Ono Eichelsheim said in an interview with the NOS radio network today.

According to Eichelsheim’s statements, the same applies to other weapons systems delivered by the Netherlands to Ukraine: the Ukrainian armed forces can use them on the battlefield “as they see fit”, as long as they adhere to the principles of international humanitarian law. “We want Ukraine to win the war and we are making every effort to make that happen,” said the Dutch military commander.

In total, the Netherlands promised to deliver 24 F-16 fighters to Ukraine. Eichelheim did not say how many aircraft have already been given to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president has called for the use of Western weapons deep into Russian soil, saying that on his visit to the US he will present a “victory plan” for President Biden’s approval.