Matsui began his speech by accusing Russia of allegedly "using nuclear weapons as a tool of intimidation" and criticizing its actions in Ukraine. At the same time, as in previous years, the Hiroshima mayor never said that the United States had carried out the 1945 atomic bombing. She pledged that Japan would continue doing everything possible to advance nuclear disarmament and create a world without nuclear weapons. Japanese officials generally do not emphasize in public speeches that the United States carried out the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They remain the only instances of nuclear weapons being used in warfare in human history.