Foreign minister says in interview that Russia will use ‘all means’ to defend its interests

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat said in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson released Friday that Moscow doesn’t want a war with the United States but will use “all means” to defend its interests.

Sergey Lavrov argued that while Russia and the U.S. are officially not at war, Washington’s permission for Ukraine to use American longer-range missiles for strikes on Russian territory marked a dangerous escalation.

“It is obvious that the Ukrainians would not be able to do what they’re doing with long-range modern weapons without direct participation of the American servicemen. And this is dangerous, no doubt about this,” he said, adding that the Western belief that Russia’s red lines could be “moved again and again” is “a very serious mistake.”

Lavrov, the world’s longest-serving foreign minister who has been on the job for 20 years, said that a recent Russian strike on Ukraine with a new hypersonic intermediate range ballistic missile called Oreshnik was a signal to the West that Russia is prepared to use all means to achieve its goals in Ukraine.

“The message which we wanted to send by testing in real action this hypersonic system is that we will be ready to do anything to defend our legitimate interests,” he said. “The United States, and the allies of the United States who also provide these long-range weapons to the Kyiv regime, they 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.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the Nov. 21 attack with Oreshnik as a response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian military facilities in Bryansk and Kursk regions with Western-supplied weapons.

He has declared that in the case of new attacks on Russia with Western longer-range weapons, Russia could use Oreshnik to hit the government district in Kyiv. Putin also warned that Russia could use the new missile to strike military facilities of Kyiv’s Western allies that allow Ukraine to use their weapons for attacks on Russian territory.

Putin hailed Oreshnik’s capability, saying that its multiple warheads that plunge to a target at 10 times the speed of sound are immune to intercept by any existing air defense systems. Russia’s missile forces chief said that the missile, which can carry conventional or nuclear warheads, has a range allowing it to reach all of Europe.

Lavrov said that Russia has issued a warning to the U.S. about the Oreshnik launch 30 minutes before it happened using an automated system used to exchange such advance notices.

He said that “we hate even to think about war with the United States, which will take nuclear character,” but he warned that any potential exchange of nuclear strikes between Russia and NATO allies in Europe will inevitably escalate into a wider conflict in which the U.S. will be targeted.

“To speak about limited exchange of nuclear strikes is an invitation to disaster, which we don’t want to have,” Lavrov said.

Speaking about the Kremlin conditions for a potential peace deal, he reaffirmed Putin’s demand that Ukraine should pull back its forces from the four regions that Russia annexed in September 2022 and renounce its bid to join NATO. He added that any peace agreement must secure the rights of Russian speakers in Ukraine.

Asked about his view of Donald Trump, Lavrov described him as “a very strong person, a person who wants results, who doesn’t like procrastination on anything.”