Maria Zakharova, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, received a call from “higher-ups” in the middle of a live press briefing.
A video from the press conference has now gone viral where Zakharova was allegedly instructed by someone on the phone to not comment at all.
This press briefing came in after Ukraine accused Russia of firing an intercontinental ballistic missile on the city of Dnipro. According to some Russian military bloggers, this firing was aimed at Yuzhmash – an aerospace manufacturer, now known as Pivdenmash.
The unknown male voice on the phone addressed Zakharova as “Masha”, a diminutive of her first name, and advised her to not comment anything on the ballistic missile strike in the event. “On the ‘Yuzhmash’ ballistic missile strike that the Westerners have started talking about, we are not commenting at all,” he said.
Clarifying to the Russian state news agency TASS, Zakharova said, “I clarified with experts whether this topic is ours. The answer came during the briefing — the Foreign Ministry does not comment. So there is no intrigue.”
The launch comes just a day after Putin signed off on changes to the nuclear doctrine.
The big change in the doctrine now says that an attack from a non-nuclear state backed by a nuclear state will be viewed by Russia as a joint attack on it.
“An ICBM launch can certainly be seen as a threatening gesture, potentially in response to the lifting of restrictions on ATACMS and Storm Shadow. It’s a means of deterrence,” said a European military source to Reuters.
Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, popularly referred as ICBMs are traditionally designed to carry a nuclear warhead, however it may also be used for conventional warheads. The concept, technology, design, and research behind ICBMs were to cater to a country’s response in a nuclear event.
This is the first time Moscow has fired an ICBM, said Kyiv, as both sides saw major escalations in the war that marked its 1,000th day on Wednesday. According to Reuters, the missile was an RS-26 Rubezh, a solid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 5,800 km.
Both sides have used deadly long-range missiles to show its muscular posturing, even as several world leaders have urged Putin and Zelensky to resort to diplomacy to find an agreeable outcome to the war.
