"Italy has seriously violated its mandate as president" by excluding Russian experts from participating in a session on operational issues of the Initiative on Combating the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction which opened today in Rome.

This was stated by the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, reporting that the Kremlin considers this move by Rome "hostile" , "another provocative attack on Russia".

An attack on our country that comes on the day that Russia carried out an exercise that includes " a massive nuclear attack " by its strategic forces "in response to a possible nuclear attack by the enemy". Defense Minister Serghei Shoigu said that "all missiles have achieved their targets"

Vladimir Putin also attended the exercises, whose rhetoric is becoming increasingly aggressive: " Ukraine - he said - has become an instrument of US foreign policy and has practically lost its sovereignty ".

" The potential for conflict in the world as a whole, as well as at the regional level, remains very high ", he added, underlining that "new risks and challenges for collective security are emerging, mainly due to a sharp aggravation of the global geopolitical confrontation. ".

NATO's reply, which came through the mouth of Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, was not long in coming: " Putin is losing on the ground and is responding with attacks on civilians and with nuclear rhetoric , do not use false pretexts for an escalation, NATO will not be intimidated and will defend all allies ”.

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(Unioneonline / L)