According to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Russia will not start a war against Ukraine. Russia does not want war, Lavrov said in an interview with Russian radio stations on Friday. “But we will not allow our interests to be grossly trampled on and ignored.” US President Joe Biden had warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a day earlier that Russia could possibly plan an invasion in February.
“There will be no war as far as it depends on the Russian Federation, we don’t want war,” assured the foreign minister in a live interview. He referred to US proposals to talk about limiting the deployment of intermediate-range missiles, restrictions on military exercises and rules to avoid accidents between warships and aircraft. Russia had suggested discussing these issues years ago, but Washington and its allies have never taken them up until now, Lavrov said.
The minister described the US proposals for dialogue on confidence-building measures as reasonable, but stressed that Russia’s main concern is to stop NATO’s eastward expansion and the stationing of Alliance weapons near Russia’s borders. According to international agreements, the security of one nation should not come at the expense of the security of others. He will ask his western interlocutors in writing to comply with this obligation.