Lavrov: The more long-range arms sent, the further we will push
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Russia's Foreign Minister believes that the West is trying to weaken Russia in such a way that it would be unable to recover for decades.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a news conference in Moscow in February 2022 (Reuters)
The more long-range weapons are supplied by the West to Ukrainian forces, the further Russia will enter to move the weapons and conflict from its borders, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as he underlined that escalation is increasing.
"The fact that the West cannot calm down - and, as in the infamous fairy tales, with every step it gets stuck even more in the swamp - this plays an important role in the course of the [Russian special military] operation. This escalation, you are absolutely right, is snowballing,” Lavrov said, adding that the Russian military is moving the Ukrainian arm supply further away to eliminate border threat.
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Lavrov further stated, "We all want this to end, but it is not the time factor that is important here, the essence factor is of importance, the factor of the quality of the results that we provide for our people, for those who want to remain part of the Russian culture," as he believes that the West is trying to weaken Russia in a way that it would be unable to recover for decades, in an attempt to solve the “Russian issue”.
“Why do people refuse to see the Nazi ideology that now underlies the Kiev regime? All those statements that are being made by his supporters and puppet masters, well, I don't see any way to regard them otherwise as an attempt to finally solve the ‘Russian issue’.”
'Ending the war that the West started'
The diplomat referred to the weapons partially or completely supplied to Ukraine by saying, "It is impossible for Ukrainians to work on these systems, trained or having passed some two-month or even three-month courses. There are systems, according to specialists, that cannot be trained for in the foreseeable future, and if they are supplied, then most likely it will be done together with combat crews,"
Regarding an alleged request to Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) partners for military aid, Lavrov denied the allegation, and assured that Russia has "everything necessary to solve the tasks of the special military operation, to end the war that the West started through the Ukrainian regime even after the coup d'etat,"
This comes after new German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius revealed the decision to ship 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, which was followed by a statement by US President Joe Biden that he has approved the transfer of 31 Abrams tanks to Kiev.
Pistorius confirmed that the tanks would be sent within three to four months, while Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on Tuesday that the delivery will become another "blatant provocation" against Russia and warned that the Russian military would destroy the equipment.
The Russian Embassy in Germany called the decision by Pistorius "an extremely dangerous decision [by Berlin] shifts the Ukrainian conflict to a new level of standoff.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the continuous arms supplies by the West are only proof that they are increasingly getting involved in the war.
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