OREANDA-NEWS  Russia and the United States are now in a phase of hot conflict, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Sputnik radio.

"Now we are in the phase of a hot conflict with the United States. We are witnessing the direct involvement of this state in a hybrid war with Russia in various directions. Some forms of this war are simply unprecedented — they simply did not exist and could not exist during that cold war," the diplomat said.

He noted that now "unfortunately, there is a lot of talk about the threat of a nuclear conflict." According to Ryabkov, "our American opponents" behave "absolutely crazy" in many respects, while Russia constantly emphasizes that there can be no winners in a nuclear war, therefore, it cannot be unleashed. But how thoughtlessly, provocatively, in many respects absolutely reckless our American opponents are leading the case further up the escalatory ladder, how blinded they are by their absolutely absurd and unfounded belief in the ability to inflict strategic defeat on Russia, makes us doubt their cognitive potentials, their adequacy. This is a game with fire in the truest sense of the word," the deputy minister added.

According to Ryabkov, it will be a fatal mistake for the United States to underestimate Russia's determination to "take all measures, use all means" when "encroaching on the sovereignty, territorial integrity and statehood of Russia."

The day before, the diplomat said that the relationship was destroyed and came to a collapse. Moscow holds Washington responsible for this.