Russia’s high diplomat says Moscow despatched the West a message with the latest use of a hypersonic missile in Ukraine.
Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated the latest use of a hypersonic missile within the Ukraine conflict sought to make the West perceive that Moscow was prepared to make use of “any means” to stave off defeat.
Lavrov made the remarks in a broadcast interview with United States journalist Tucker Carlson on Thursday, claiming that the West was combating “for holding their hegemony over the world, on any nation, any area, any continent”.
“We combat for our reliable safety pursuits,” he stated in English.
“We’re sending indicators and we hope that the final one, a few weeks in the past, the sign with the brand new weapons system referred to as Oreshnik … was taken severely,” Lavrov stated.
Whereas he insisted that Russia doesn’t need to escalate the scenario and desires to “keep away from any misunderstanding” with Washington and its companions, Lavrov warned that “we are going to ship extra messages in the event that they don’t draw essential conclusions.”
Oreshnik assault
Russia deployed the Oreshnik hypersonic missile in opposition to the Ukrainian metropolis of Dnipro final month in what Russian President Vladimir Putin described as a check of a missile he stated couldn’t be introduced down.
Lavrov stated Ukraine had misplaced the chance to take care of its territorial integrity by twice rejecting proposals for a deal, as soon as earlier than the full-scale conflict started after which in talks in April 2022 in Turkey.
“We didn’t begin this conflict. We had been for years and years and years sending warnings that pushing NATO nearer and nearer to our borders goes to create an issue,” he stated.
Within the 80-minute interview with Carlson, a right-wing journalist and an ally of US President-elect Donald Trump who earlier this yr was the primary American journalist to interview Putin since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Lavrov stated that the West ought to abandon any notion that Russia had no “crimson strains”.
“If they’re following the logic which some Westerners have been saying recently, that they don’t imagine that Russia has crimson strains, they introduced their crimson strains, these crimson strains are being moved many times, this can be a very severe mistake,” he stated.
Moscow was “prepared for any eventuality however we strongly desire peaceable answer by way of negotiations on the premise of respecting reliable safety pursuits of Russia”, Lavrov added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has referred to as using the Oreshnik hypersonic missile “the newest bout of Russian insanity” and appealed for up to date air defence methods to satisfy the brand new risk.
Lavrov additionally not directly clashed on Thursday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at an annual safety assembly in Malta, accusing the West of risking escalation over Ukraine however strolling out earlier than Blinken and different audio system may reply.
