The United States remains open for diplomacy with Russia over the Ukraine crisis, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

The United States is expelling the last Russian diplomat seconded to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations in light of Moscow's operation in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Wednesday.

"The United States is continuing our diplomatic efforts. We're keeping the door open to a diplomatic way forward," Blinken said at a press conference. 

Blinken's words came despite the West and mainly the United States imposing harsh sanctions on Russia and trying to suffocate the Russian economy and bring the Russian operation to a close.

Blinken claims Russian sanctions not aimed at citizens

Blinken further claimed that the US sanctions on Russia were not aimed at its citizens, insisting that "Washington stands with the Russian people."

"The economic costs that we've been forced to impose on Russia are not aimed at you [Russian citizens]," he told a press briefing. "They are aimed at compelling your government to stop its actions," the official attested.

US, Russia agreed use of nukes would be devastating

Russia and the United States have long agreed that the use of nuclear weapons would have a devastating impact on the globe, Blinken added before the press briefing.

These words also come at a time when the US-allied Ukraine declared its intention to develop nuclear arms as tensions grow over Kiev due to the West, mainly NATO, using it to serve its eastward expansion and undermine Russian security.

Commenting on the possibility of a nuclear war, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said questions on such a possibility should instead be addressed to the US administration, adding that if US President Joe Biden was talking about the possibility of such an alternative, then "the old instincts are still alive in the minds."

"This should be asked to President Joe Biden. He said that if they had not taken the path of such sanctions, the only alternative could be World War III. Thinks in such categories," Lavrov said.

He earlier said the same words that came from his US counterpart, saying, "If unleashed, a Third World War would be waged with the use of nuclear weapons, and it would be disastrous."

Russia had for months been warning of the threat posed against it by NATO's attempts to expand eastward, which happened simultaneously with an increase in NATO military activity along Russia's borders, and batches of lethal weapons being sent to Ukraine, prompting Russia to request security guarantees from the West. Washington failed to provide the guarantees.

After the West did not respond to Russia's demands, and amid Ukrainian shelling on the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, President Vladimir Putin initiated a special military operation in Donbass. 

To counter the Russian de-Nazification of Ukraine, the West imposed harsh sanctions on Russia, which affected many economic sectors, not only in Russia, but the whole world.