The use of a hypersonic missile in the war in Ukraine is intended to make the West understand that Russia is ready to use any means to ensure that it is not harmed " strategic defeat". This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, quoted by "Reuters".
Russia launched the hypersonic missile "Oreshnik" against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro last month. President Vladimir Putin called the move a test of a missile he said could not be shot down. He warned that Russia could operate other such missiles in "combat conditions" if necessary.
"The message is that the US and its allies, who are also providing long-range weapons to the Kiev regime, must understand that we would be prepared to use any means to prevent them from achieving what they they call it a strategic defeat of Russia", Lavrov pointed out to the American journalist Tucker Carlson.
"They are fighting to maintain their hegemony over the world, in every country, every region, every continent. We are fighting for our legitimate interests in the field of security," he added.
Speaking in English, Lavrov said the West had refused to discuss maintaining security guarantees for Russia in the weeks and months before the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow called a "special military operation".
As Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border in early 2022, Western leaders urged Moscow not to invade its smaller neighbor. French President Emmanuel Macron met with Putin three weeks before the invasion and said he had received assurances that Russia would not act to worsen the situation.
Lavrov pointed out that Ukraine had lost an opportunity to preserve its territorial integrity by twice rejecting settlement proposals - once before the war began and then in talks in April 2022. in Turkey.
"We didn't start this war. We have been sending warnings for years and years that pushing NATO closer and closer to our borders will create a problem," he stressed.
Putin sent his troops across the border from Russia and its ally Belarus. The Russian leader announced that Moscow protects the Russian-speaking population in eastern Ukraine and seeks to "denazify" the Ukrainian leadership in Kyiv.
In the 80-minute interview, Lavrov also indicated that the West should abandon the idea that Russia has no "red lines" that it would prohibit anyone from crossing in defense of its interests.
"If they follow the logic that some Westerners have expressed lately, that they don't believe that Russia has red lines, or that those red lines are being moved over and over again, that is a very serious mistake," he warned.
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Lavrov rejected as "meaningless" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's peace plan, first unveiled in late 2022, and the subsequent "victory plan" announced earlier this year.
In June, Putin said Russia was ready to hold talks with Ukraine, provided it recognized Moscow's control of the four regions it annexed, though without fully controlling any of them.
Zelensky's plan initially called for Russia's full withdrawal and recognition of its post-Soviet 1991 border. Last month, however, the Ukrainian leader said Ukraine could hold talks and leave Russia in the territory it holds, provided government-controlled areas of Ukraine could be brought under the "umbrella" of NATO.
Many in Russia would like to make the lifting of sanctions a condition for an agreement to settle the crisis in Ukraine, but the country resisted these sanctions and strengthened, Lavrov also pointed out.
"The more we live under sanctions, the more we understand that it is better to rely on yourself and develop mechanisms, platforms for cooperation with "normal" countries that are not hostile to you and do not mix economic interests and policies", he pointed out.
"And we learned a lot after the sanctions were put in place. The sanctions began under President Obama. They continued to a very large extent under Donald Trump's first term. And these sanctions under the Biden administration are absolutely unprecedented. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger - they could never kill us, that's why they make us stronger," Lavrov stressed.
The Russian foreign minister noted that at summit meetings the Europeans run away from him and behave like children.
"It becomes contagious when someone sees an American or a European talking to me. Europeans run when they see me. During the last G20 meeting, it was ridiculous. Grown people, mature people. They behave like children... so childish," he expressed bewilderment.
In his words, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Boris Johnson, is unpredictable and could have stopped the peace negotiations for Ukraine, driven by some immediate desires.
When asked whether the former British prime minister acted on behalf of the US government and the administration of US President Joe Biden, Lavrov replied that he "does not know and will not guess".