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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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The U.S. is risking a direct confrontation with Russia over the war in Ukraine, two top Russian officials have said.
Moscow's ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, said in an interview with Tass published Friday that "the risk of a clash between the two great powers is high."
Alexander Darchiyev, director of the Foreign Ministry's North American Department, made similar remarks in an interview with the same Russian state news agency.
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The comments follow the Washington visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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On Wednesday, President Joe Biden pledged a further $1.8 billion in aid for Kyiv to fight Russian aggression.
Within the package is an agreement to provide Ukraine with Patriot missile batteries, which Moscow has said would increase the risk of direct involvement of U.S. forces.
Darchiyev told Tass that he hoped, "Washington will heed the voice of reason" and not allow the situation "to escalate to the point of a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States."
"Otherwise, severed diplomatic ties will become a reality, with all due consequences," he added, accusing the U.S. of being responsible for starting the process "of destroying bilateral relations."
He also blamed Washington for choosing "to self-isolate from Moscow" and was now "trying to shift the blame, as if someone else brought those relations to the point of no return, not the current administration."
While he said Moscow did not want to "sever" relations completely, "we will not tolerate malicious provocations that leave us with no other choice."
Meanwhile, Antonov denounced Zelensky's visit to Washington as "theatre", and told Tass that the "true goals of the White House policy towards us," was "to intensify the U.S. proxy war against the Russian Federation."
"We emphasize that the risk of a clash between the two great powers is high," he said, adding that Zelensky's visit and the conversations in Washington have shown "that neither the (U.S.) administration nor Kyiv is ready for peace."
Moscow has been critical of Zelensky's visit to Washington. Dmitry Belik, from the Russian State Duma International Affairs Committee, said Ukraine's alliance with the United States would end badly for the Ukrainian president's administration.
He said that Zelensky had made a "fatal mistake" in his choice of allies, who typically "ended up very badly."
Before Zelensky had arrived in the U.S., Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned of "an aggravation of the conflict" which "does not bode well for Ukraine."
Newsweek has contacted the U.S. State Department and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for comment.
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