Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s statements suggesting that NATO launch preemptive strikes against Russia “highlight the need” for what he called a “special operation” in Ukraine that Kyiv has rushed to carry out. responded by noting that the statements of the President of Ukraine about the “preemptive strike” related to the imposition of sanctions.
Speaking to the Australian think tank Lowy Institute, Zelenskiy said he believes the strikes are necessary to prevent any use of nuclear weapons. He did not go into detail about what kind of strikes he intended to launch, and did not indicate the need for nuclear strikes.
Lavrov explained during a speech to United Russia that NATO supports the Ukrainian president in confronting Russia and establishing hegemony, stressing that the West is responsible for providing the Kyiv regime with weapons.
Lavrov added: “Yesterday, Zelensky called on Westerners to launch a preventive nuclear strike on Russia. Thus, this person actually gave the whole world additional evidence of the threats emanating from the Kyiv regime, in connection with which special military measures were deployed. operation to neutralize them.
“We warned the NATO countries about the consequences of supplying weapons to Ukraine,” Lavrov stressed, stressing that Russia’s position on nuclear deterrence has not changed.
“We once again warn the United States and other sponsors of the Kyiv regime against further involvement in this issue as parties to the conflict. As for us, as we have repeatedly stated, our military doctrine and the foundations of the state’s policy in the field of nuclear deterrence have not changed,” he said.
Lavrov noted that the “appetite of the Kyiv regime is growing” and that Zelensky “began to dictate his terms to NATO and the European Union”, warning that the actions of the Kyiv regime are aimed at creating risks of the use of various types of weapons of mass destruction.
In response to Lavrov’s comments, a spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the president was referring to sanctions against Russia when he said preemptive strikes were necessary to prevent any use of nuclear weapons.
“Guys, you went too far with your nuclear hysteria,” press secretary Sergei Nikiforov wrote on Facebook.
He added: “Precautions had to be taken to prevent Russia from starting a war. And let me remind you that the only measures that would have been taken at that time were precautionary sanctions”, noting that the insinuation of the use of nuclear weapons “was made only by the state of Russia”.