I believe that we should not limit deliveries of equipment, but with the exceptions of nuclear weapons and direct participation of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces, Pavel emphasized.

The newly elected president, a retired general and former chairman of the bloc’s Military Committee, also described the presence of nuclear weapons among the members of the Atlantic alliance as a supposed deterrent against Moscow.

For his part, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted earlier that Western leaders practice nuclear rhetoric on a daily basis and emphasized that the Russian Federation does not want to participate in these exercises.

The spokesman also reminded that Moscow can use nuclear weapons only in accordance with the provisions of its nuclear doctrine.

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