In a major speech on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of double standards and deceitfulness in relation to the world order.
"The United States is the only country in the world to use nuclear weapons twice, destroying the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By the way, they set a precedent."
It was not clear whether he implies it is acceptable for Russia to use nuclear weapons as well.
He was speaking at a ceremony to annex four regions of Ukraine following a series of votes Kyiv and the West have denounced as illegal, sham referendums. Putin said Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia would be merged into Russia.
"The United States, together with the British, turned Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne and many other German cities into ruins without any military necessity during World War Two. And this was done defiantly, without any, I repeat, military necessity. There was only one goal: just as in the case of the nuclear bombings in Japan, to intimidate both our country and the whole world.
The United States left a terrible mark on the memory of the peoples of Korea and Vietnam with barbaric "carpet bombing", the use of napalm and chemical weapons," he said.
Putin vowed Russia would defend its newly-annexed territory with all the means at its disposal.
