The Ukrainian crisis is very far from a diplomatic agreement; Moscow’s warnings about its readiness to respond to attacks in Russia were ignored, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
“Judging by what is happening… we are still very far from a political and diplomatic solution to the crisis,” – said the minister.
As the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry noted, “an escalating step was the launch of missile strikes deep into the territory” of the country.
“All our warnings that an appropriate response would be given to these unacceptable actions were ignored… No escalation by the enemy will force us to retreat from achieving the objectives of the special military operation,” – said Lavrov.
According to the minister, paraphrasing the statement of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir PutinMoscow is prepared for any development of events, but always prefers to resolve controversial issues by peaceful means.
Lavrov added that the root causes of the conflict must be eliminated, which include “the creation of long-term threats to Russia’s security in the western direction, including NATO’s expansion to the east,” and kyiv’s violations of the rights of “Russians and people who are associated with Russia and Russian culture, the Orthodox faith.”
“A necessary element of the political solution to the conflict should be demilitarization and denazification, guaranteeing the non-aligned, neutral and nuclear-free status of the territories controlled by the kyiv regime. Of course, the condition for any agreement will be the recognition of the political and territorial realities enshrined in the Russian Constitution.” – said Lavrov.
Putin earlier made an appeal in which he stated that Ukraine launched attacks on targets in the Kursk and Bryansk regions on November 19, using American long-range ATACMS missiles and British long-range Storm Shadow missiles. In response to the use of American and British weapons, on November 21, Russia launched a combined attack against a Ukrainian military-industrial complex: in Dnepropetrovsk, a large industrial complex producing missiles and weapons was attacked. One of the newest Russian medium-range missile systems, the Oreshnik, was tested in combat conditions, in this case with a ballistic missile in a non-nuclear hypersonic equipment.
