Lavrov says Russia will continue Ukraine war till 'the end'

Authored by reuters.com and submitted by Tunlin555
image for Lavrov says Russia will continue Ukraine war till 'the end'

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Vladislav Deinego, head of the Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, and Sergei Peresada, deputy head of the Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, in Moscow, Russia February 25, 2022. Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday he believed some foreign leaders were preparing for war against Russia and that Moscow would press on with its military operation in Ukraine until "the end".

Lavrov also said Russia had no thoughts of nuclear war.

Offering no evidence to back up his remarks in an interview with state television, a week after Russian invaded Ukraine, he also accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, an ethnic Jew, of presiding over "a society where Nazism is flourishing".

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He said he had no doubt that a solution to the crisis in Ukraine would be found, and a new round of talks were about to start between Ukrainian and Russian officials.

But he said Russia's dialogue with the West must be based on mutual respect, accused NATO of seeking to maintain supremacy and said that while Russia had a lot of goodwill, it could not let anyone undermine its interests.

Moscow would not let Ukraine keep infrastructure that threatened Russia, he said.

Moscow could also not tolerate what he said was a military threat from Ukraine, he said, adding that he was convinced that Russia was right over Ukraine.

"The thought of nuclear is constantly spinning in the heads of Western politicians but not in the heads of Russians," he said. "I assure you that we will not allow any kind of provocation to unbalance us."

Russia did not feel politically isolated, and the question of how Ukraine lives should be defined by its people, he said.

Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of hitting civilian areas but Lavrov said Russian troops had strict orders to use high-precision weapons to destroy military infrastructure.

Offering no evidence, Lavrov said Russia had information that the United States was worried about the prospect of losing control over what he described as chemical and biological laboratories in Ukraine and accused Britain of building military bases there.

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Riversmooth on March 3rd, 2022 at 11:14 UTC »

And when it’s over what do they have? A country that has been reduced to rubble and will cost billions to clean up, millions of Ukrainians that will never forgive them, and an economy at home that will take years to recover, maybe decades.

ledelleakles on March 3rd, 2022 at 11:14 UTC »

I thought it was a peacekeeping mission

VagrantShadow on March 3rd, 2022 at 11:11 UTC »

If that is the case, russia is going to pay a very steep price for putins ego and lust for power.