The US accusations against Moscow set out in the latest Nuclear Posture Review “have nothing do with reality,” the ministry said in a statement on Saturday as it expressed its “deep disappointment” with the document. Washington uses its traditional anti-Russian rhetoric to justify its own “large-scale nuclear weapons buildup,” it added.

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The US readiness to use its nuclear arsenal against Russia pre-emptively is nothing but an “attempt to question [Moscow’s] right for self-defense against an aggression in a situation that is critical for the very existence of the Russian state,” the statement said.

It adding that Russia’s military doctrine allows the use of nuclear weapons only in case of aggression involving the use of weapons of mass destruction or where the existence of the nation is at stake.

Unlike Russia, the US has adopted a very broad and vague definition of situations which allow Washington to use its nuclear arsenal, the ministry warned. The NPR de facto allows the US strategists “to treat almost any use of military force as a reason for carrying out a nuclear strike against those deemed aggressors,” it said.

The US also plans to modernize its nuclear arsenal by developing new, low-power nuclear munitions. The possession of such weapons coupled with a doctrine stating the right to a pre-emptive strike drastically increases the risk of a nuclear war even in “low-intensity conflicts,” the Russian ministry said.

Moscow also expressed its concern over the fact that the US maintains and upgrades its tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, deploying them “in the immediate vicinity of the Russian borders.” It also criticized the practice of the NATO “joint nuclear missions” that allow non-nuclear weapon member states of the Alliance to take part in planning and training in the use of nuclear weapons. This constitutes a “major violation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT),” the statement said.