U.S. intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard, fresh off a visit to Hiroshima, accused “political elite and warmongers” of fomenting a “nuclear holocaust” in unusual remarks that echoed Russian talking points on the war in Ukraine.

Although Gabbard, U.S. President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, did not name specific countries that might be involved, Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Kremlin and White House officials — and MAGA aficionados with wide audiences — have warned of a descent into nuclear war following Ukraine’s audacious drone attack on Russia’s nuclear bomber fleet on June 1.

“This is the reality of what's at stake, what we are facing now, because as we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers,” Gabbard said in a video posted to X on Tuesday.

“Perhaps it's because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for their families that regular people won't have access to,” she said, urging people “to speak up and demand an end to this madness.”

“We must reject this path to nuclear war, and work toward a world where no one has to live in fear of a nuclear holocaust,” she said.

It’s unclear when the video was made, but Gabbard visited Japan last week, touring the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which neighbors Hiroshima Prefecture, alongside U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass.

The video featured imagery of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Gabbard standing outside the Atomic Bomb Dome in the city, as well as graphic paintings by survivors that she mistakenly referred to as “hibokusha.” The survivors of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, whose numbers have dwindled ahead of the 80th anniversary of the attacks this year, are known as hibakusha.

The U.S. attacked Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, killing an estimated 140,000 people. Three days later, it dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, leaving around 74,000 people dead.

“A single nuclear weapon today could kill millions in just minutes,” Gabbard said, with the video then cutting to dramatic mock footage of a nuclear attack wiping out San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge as a mushroom cloud rises into the atmosphere.

Asked about the video Wednesday, Japan's top government spokesman refrained from commenting, but emphasized Tokyo's stance that "accurately understanding the true nature of the atomic bombings is a fundamental part" of working toward nuclear disarmament.

"As the only country to have suffered atomic bombings, we are committed to the belief that the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by nuclear weapons must never be repeated," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said, adding that Japan will continue to work toward a world without nuclear weapons, in cooperation with the U.S., "through practical and concrete efforts."

But a number of past statements by Gabbard about the Ukraine war that appeared to parrot Kremlin views put the credibility of her comments on the need to abolish nuclear weapons in question.

She has in the past said that U.S. military and monetary assistance to Ukraine raises the risk of a global conflict by antagonizing Moscow. She has also expressed sympathy for Russia’s stance, given Ukraine’s desire to join NATO.

“The warmongers are trying to drag us into WW3, which can only end in one way: nuclear annihilation and the suffering and death of all our loved ones,” Gabbard wrote in a post on X in 2023. “(Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky, (then-U.S. President Joe) Biden, NATO, congressional and media neocons are insane. And we are insane if we passively allow them to lead us into this holocaust like sheep to the slaughter.”

Her remarks come as Trump has signaled his frustration with Putin over the lack of progress toward a ceasefire in Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned that Washington could walk away from its diplomatic outreach on the conflict if positive signals do not emerge soon.