Lavrov says Russia defending itself by ‘any means’
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warns of more attacks by the Oreshnik which cannot be intercepted by air defenses.
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Daily TribuneForeign Minister Sergei Lavrov warns of more attacks by the Oreshnik which cannot be intercepted by air defenses.
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Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused US President Joe Biden's administration of escalating the conflict in Ukraine
Alberto PIZZOLI / POOL/AFP
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said he hoped Ukraine’s allies took “seriously” Moscow’s recent use of a hypersonic missile in the conflict there, and warned that Russia was ready to use “any means” to defend itself.
The United States and its allies “must understand that we would be ready to use any means not to allow them to succeed in what they call strategic defeat of Russia,” Lavrov said in an interview with US media personality Tucker Carlson.
Two weeks ago, Russia fired its new Oreshnik hypersonic missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in an escalation of the almost three-year war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has since threatened to use the weapon on Kyiv in response to Ukraine’s strikes on Russia’s territory, which took place after the US authorized use of its ATACMS weapon system in such attacks.
“We are sending signals and we hope that the last one, a couple of weeks ago, the signal with the new weapons system called Oreshnik... was taken seriously,” Lavrov said.
While he insisted that Russia does not want to escalate the situation and wants to “avoid any misunderstanding” with Washington and its partners, Lavrov warned that “we will send additional messages if they don’t draw necessary conclusions.”
Putin said the Oreshnik missile flies at 10 times the speed of sound and cannot be intercepted by air defenses.
