Russian Ambassador to Japan Mikhail Galuzin on Thursday laid flowers at the cenotaph for victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing in Hiroshima, just two days before an annual memorial ceremony where he was uninvited due to Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine.
"I came to express Russia's positive attitude toward nuclear weapons reduction," Galuzin told reporters, after paying his respects at the Peace Memorial Park, in a veiled jab at the United States that carried out the world's first atomic bomb attack on the western Japan city on Aug. 6, 1945, in the final stages of World War II.
He also criticized a decision not to invite him to Saturday's event marking the 77th anniversary of the Hiroshima disaster.
The lack of invitation from Hiroshima "disregarded that Russia is a leader toward nuclear disarmament," the ambassador said.
After laying the flowers, he said he "deeply felt the inexpressible agony of the atomic bomb victims."
Galuzin brushed off the international community's concerns that Russia may use nuclear weapons during the war with Ukraine, saying Moscow has "absolutely no intention" of using them, nor has it said "directly or indirectly" that it would.
He also criticized the United States for "trying to distract public opinion from its own irresponsible nuclear policy."
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