MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s comments suggesting that NATO launch preemptive strikes against Russia “highlight the need” for what he called a “special operation” in Ukraine.
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.
“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.
Before the meeting of European leaders in Prague, Zelensky asked to continue to provide military assistance to Kyiv so that “Russian tanks do not advance towards Warsaw or Prague.”
He also urged NATO countries to launch preemptive strikes against Russia rather than wait for Russian nuclear strikes, while Zelensky said the Russian president could not save his life if he used nuclear weapons.
Moscow criticized the Ukrainian president’s statements, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that “such statements are nothing more than a call to start a new world war with cruel and unexpected consequences.”
But Kyiv has made it clear that its president is talking about preventive sanctions, not nuclear strikes.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova believed that the West was instigating a nuclear war in the hands of Vladimir Zelensky, and that he was heavily armed, turned into a monster that could destroy the planet with his own hands.
