Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERSTOKYO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Japan on Sunday marked the 78th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing on Hiroshima, where its mayor urged the abolition of nuclear weapons and called the Group of Seven leaders' notion of nuclear deterrence a "folly". The day to commemorate the victims of the world's first nuclear attack comes as Russia has raised the spectre of using nuclear weapons in its war with Ukraine. It also comes as biopic "Oppenheimer", chronicling the creation of the atomic bomb, has become a box-office hit in the United States. G7 leaders issued a statement expressing their commitment to achieving disarmament but said that as long as nuclear weapons existed, they should serve to deter aggression and prevent war. The prime minister said the road to a world without nuclear weapons was getting steeper, due in part to Russia's nuclear threats, but that this made it all the more important to bring back international momentum towards that goal.

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Persons: Oppenheimer, Fumio Kishida, Kazumi Matsui, Antonio Guterres, Kiyoshi Takenaka, Chang, Ran Kim, William Mallard Organizations: Kyodo, REUTERS, Seven, Kishida, United Nations, Japan, Thomson Locations: Hiroshima, Japan, REUTERS TOKYO, Russia, Ukraine, United States, Nagasaki