Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview broadcast on Thursday, said the use of a hypersonic missile in the Ukraine war sought to make the West understand that Moscow was ready to use any means to ensure no "strategic defeat" would be inflicted on Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview broadcast on Thursday, said the use of a hypersonic missile in the Ukraine war sought to make the West understand that Moscow was ready to use any means to ensure no "strategic defeat" would be inflicted on Moscow.
Russia deployed the Oreshnik hypersonic missile against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro last month in what Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin described as a test of a missile he said could not be brought down. He said Russia could bring other such missiles into action in "combat conditions" if required.
"The message is that you, I mean the U.S. and the allies of the U.S., who also provide these long-range weapons to the Kyiv regime - they must understand that we would be ready to use any means not to allow them to succeed in what they call a strategic defeat of Russia," Lavrov told U.S. journalist Tucker Carlson.
"They fight for keeping their hegemony over the world, on any country, any region, any continent. We fight for our legitimate security interests."
Speaking in English, Lavrov said the West had refused to discuss upholding security guarantees for Russia in the weeks and months before the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, called a "special military operation" in Moscow.
As Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border in early 2022, Western leaders urged Moscow not to invade its smaller neighbour. French President Emmanuel Macron met Putin three weeks before the invasion, saying he had received assurances that Russia would take no action to worsen the situation.
In his comments, Lavrov said Ukraine had lost the opportunity to maintain its territorial integrity by twice rejecting proposals for a deal, once before the full-scale war began and then in talks in April 2022 in Turkey.
"We did not start this war. We had been for years and years and years sending warnings that pushing NATO closer and closer to our borders is going to create a problem," he said.
Putin sent his troops over the border from Russia and its ally Belarus, with Putin saying Moscow was defending Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine and seeking to "de-Nazify" the Ukrainian leadership in Kyiv.
RED LINES
In the course of the 80-minute interview, Lavrov also said that the West should abandon any notion that Russia had no "red lines" that it would bar anyone from crossing in defending its interests.
"If they are following the logic which some Westerners have been pronouncing lately, that they don't believe that Russia has red lines, they announced their red lines, these red lines are being moved again and again, this is a very serious mistake," he said.
Lavrov dismissed as "pointless" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's peace plan first presented in late 2022 and the subsequent "victory" plan announced earlier this year.
Putin last June said that Russia was willing to hold talks with Ukraine on condition that Ukraine acknowledged Moscow's control over the four regions of the country it has annexed, though without fully controlling any of them.
Zelenskiy's plan initially called for a complete Russian withdrawal and recognition of its 1991 post-Soviet border. Last month, he said Ukraine could hold talks and leave Russia in place in the territory it holds provided government-controlled areas of Ukraine could be brought under the NATO "umbrella".
Iran has rejected as “irrelevant” a UN nuclear watchdog resolution referring its nuclear file to the UN Security Council, arguing that ...
Georgia’s busiest sea gateway has reached its capacity limit, adding urgency to plans for a major expansion of Poti port as the country seeks...
Overnight Iranian strikes on an air base in Jordan damaged multiple U.S. aircraft and left one without a wing, American media reported. Meanwhile, ...
Four people were killed, including a child, in Ukrainian strikes on the Russian port city of Novorossiysk overnight, according to the governor of the Krasnodar region. Ukraine's drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, said Russian military ships were destroyed in the attacks.
Wildfires have broken out in Türkiye’s Antalya province, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate as strong winds fuelled the flames.
Overnight Iranian strikes on an air base in Jordan damaged multiple U.S. aircraft and left one without a wing, American media reported. Meanwhile, explosions were heard across parts of southern Iran according to local media reports.
A TV channel was struck during a live broadcast on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as Russian strikes on Kyiv killed at least three people, the city's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Meanwhile, drones hit civilian infrastructure in Russia's southwestern Saratov region.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) allegedly launched two ballistic missile attacks against a U.S. Navy warship over the past two days.
Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil refinery in Siberia and a seaport in Dagestan in the past 24 hours, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He will meet Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday to discuss air defences for Ukraine over winter.
Eight Muslim-majority countries have launched a joint push for wider international action against trade linked to Israeli settlements, seeking to build momentum from new measures announced by the UK and other Western governments.
Saudi Arabia is facing a problem that goes beyond the latest Houthi attacks on its southern oil facilities. The kingdom is now dealing with pressure on energy exports at the Strait of Hormuz to the east and the Red Sea route to the west.
Two Azerbaijani sailors were killed on Wednesday when a foreign cargo ship they were travelling on was attacked by drones in the Black Sea, Baku's Foreign Ministry has said.
Iceland’s government plans to introduce legislation in February to permanently ban commercial whaling, potentially leaving Norway and Japan as the world’s only countries still allowing the practice.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment