Russia warned The United States on Wednesday to stop the "spiral of escalation" around Ukraine, but said it would continue to inform Washington of missile test launches to avoid "dangerous mistakes," reports Reuters.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov's comments sent a signal that Moscow, which last week introduced changes to the country's nuclear doctrine that lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons, wants to keep communication channels open at a time of heightened tensions with the US.
Ryabkov was speaking six days after Russia launched a new medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile, called the Oreshnik, against Ukraine - something he said sent a clear message to the West.
"The signal is very clear and obvious - stop, you shouldn't do this anymore, you shouldn't supply Kiev with everything they want, don't encourage them to new military adventures, they are too dangerous,'' Ryabkov was quoted as saying by the state media.
"The current US administration must stop this spiral of escalation, Ryabkov added. They just have to stop it or the situation will become too dangerous for everyone, including the United States itself."
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Russia had launched a "Oreshnik" in response to Ukraine's first use of US ATACMS ballistic missiles and British Storm Shadow cruise missiles to strike Russian territory with Western authorization.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia's use of the new missile - which Kiev said had reached a speed of 13,600 km/h - represented a "clear and severe escalation" of the war and called for strong worldwide condemnation.
The US military said the missile was experimental. Ukraine has reported that Russia probably has about 10 of them.
The Kremlin said that Russia technically was not required to warn the United States of the Oreshnik launch because it was medium-range, not intercontinental, but that Moscow still informed the United States 30 minutes before the launch.
"I'm sure you understand that this was a stabilizing factor in the very dangerous situation we are in right now. We are committed to this practice and we hope that the United States will also be committed to it," Ryabkov said, quoted by Reuters. .
"And we also hope that such actions will help reduce the risks of miscalculations or dangerous errors."
In a separate development on Wednesday, Russia's state news agency TASS quoted an official as saying that Moscow was continuing work on fielding its intercontinental ballistic missile "Sarmat" - part of its strategic nuclear arsenal - on alert.
"Sarmatian" was designed to deliver nuclear warheads to strike targets thousands of kilometers away in the United States or Europe, but its development has been hampered by delays and test failures.
In September, weapons experts said Russia appeared to have suffered a catastrophic failure in the missile's latest test, leaving a deep crater in the launch silo.