Russia says ready for dialogue

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Moscow is always open to dialogue and that he believes there is still time to return to international obligations.

"We hope that there is still a chance to return to international law and international obligations," Lavrov said.

The foreign minister went on to say that Moscow's actions in Ukraine are geared towards preserving the security of Russians.

"And as we take the measures announced by the president to ensure the security of the country and the Russian people, we will certainly always be ready for a dialogue that will return us to justice and the principles of the UN Charter," Lavrov added.

Russia will respond to Western Sanctions

On her account, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Russia will respond to the steps of the Western countries, which "can't do anything else" except "brandishing" sanctions.

Zakharova added, on the air of the Rossiya 24 broadcaster, that "when Europe has once again taken another package of sanctions out of the box and is brandishing them, apparently it doesn’t know how to do anything else, but they should now think about what this could lead to if a state that is exploding from the inside due to internal problems suddenly stutters about the possession of nuclear weapons."

"We will react [to sanctions] the way we reacted before — we will respond in a reciprocal, symmetrical, asymmetrical way, as the situation requires. We will proceed from our own interests," she concluded.

Kiev’s statement changed the situation upside down

She further stressed that "when the inadequate representatives of the country of Ukraine hinted at whether to return to the discussion of the presence of nuclear weapons, it turned upside-down, it seems to me, the whole story in general."

The Russian ministry also made it clear that the war in Ukraine has been ongoing for eight years, and now it is "ending."