Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui expressed anger over Russian President Vladimir Putin's remarks in a documentary broadcast Sunday that Moscow was ready to put its nuclear weapons on alert amid the crisis in Ukraine.

The remarks "run counter to the wishes of Hiroshima that call for the abolition of nuclear weapons. I cannot help but feel a sense of anger," Matsui said in a statement released Monday.

He also urged Russia to think of the feelings of survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and recognize the inhumane nature of nuclear weapons.

Putin said in an interview aired on state-run television that Moscow was ready to put its nuclear forces on alert during tensions with Kiev following the overthrow of Ukraine's pro-Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovych, in February 2014.