The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said during a state visit to South Africa that they are now no longer in a “hybrid” war, and then warned that Moscow is “almost in a real one.”
Senior figures within the Kremlin are furious over the West and NATO’s involvement in Ukraine in supplying heavy weaponry, training, billions in aid packages and now tanks.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday that he is hopeful EU states will support a €500 million support package to be sent to Ukraine.
The €500 million package is from the European Peace Facility, and he hopes Foreign Ministers will back the agreement.
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Lavrov said, “It is well known that we supported the proposal of the Ukrainian side to negotiate early in the special military operation and by the end of March, the two delegations agreed on the principle to settle this conflict.
“It is well known and was published openly that our American, British, and some European colleagues told Ukraine that it is too early to deal, and the arrangement which was almost agreed was never revisited by the Kyiv regime.”
On Monday the Kremlin further warned that Ukraine will “pay the price” if tanks are sent to Kyiv from the West and NATO along with further military aid.
On Monday the Kremlin upped their threats to Ukraine over military aid being sent to Kyiv and claimed there is a “nervousness” in Europe as leaders are split in sending the tanks.
The Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “But of course all countries which take part, directly or indirectly, in pumping weapons into Ukraine and in raising its technological level bear responsibility [for continuing the conflict].
“The main thing is that it is the Ukrainian people who will pay the price for all this pseudo-support.”
On Friday Peskov said that by sending tanks to Ukraine to fight against Russia, is an “upward spiral,” which will spark an escalation in the war.
Peskov said, “We have repeatedly said that such supplies will not fundamentally change anything but will add problems for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.”
“It really is developing in an upward spiral.
“We see a growing indirect and sometimes direct involvement of NATO countries in this conflict … We see a devotion to the dramatic delusion that Ukraine can succeed on the battlefield.
“This is a dramatic delusion of the western community that will more than once be cause for regret, we are sure of that.”
Dmitry Medvedev, the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, warned NATO there is a risk of a “nuclear war.”
Medvedev said that NATO leaders should stop sending weaponry to Ukraine or there will be a nuclear response from the Russian Federation.
Medvedev warned, “It never occurs to any of the poor to draw the following elementary conclusion from this.
“The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war.
“Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends.
“And this should be obvious to anyone. Even a Western politician with any trace of intelligence.”
