Lavrov pledged to give a firm response to NATO's new missile threats

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has threatened the United States and NATO with a decisive response in the form of military-technical countermeasures by Moscow if a new missile threat to Russia is created. The Russian Foreign Minister said in an interview with RIA Novosti on December 29 .

"For our part, we are ready for any scenario. In case of creation of new missile threats, the opponents will receive a decisive response in the form of military-technical countermeasures," Lavrov said.

He also noted that Russia is interested in comprehensive work "to reduce the conflict potential with a focus on eliminating the root causes of fundamental contradictions in the field of security." Lavrov specified that NATO's eastward advancement was meant, and also emphasized that it was the alliance's policy of expanding its territories that caused the conflict in Ukraine.

Continued exploring: the Kremlin sees no grounds for negotiations with Kiev

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Earlier, on 26 December, Lavrov spoke about France's proposals to establish a dialog on Ukraine without Kiev. The diplomat noted that with such proposals Paris violated the Western rule that no negotiations on the conflict in Ukraine can take place without Kiev's participation in them.

The day before, the deputy speaker of the Federation Council, Konstantin Kosachev, said that the decision on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict was likely to be taken not in Kiev but in "higher oval offices".

Before that, on December 24, First Deputy Chairman of the Defense Committee Alexei Zhuravlev said that Trump talks a lot about resolving the crisis in Ukraine and it is worth waiting for him to take real measures on this issue. In addition, the United States has always behaved as an adversary of Russia regardless of who led the state.

On December 22, Trump said that he was waiting for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to start negotiations on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. The Republican added that if he were in the shoes of current US President Joe Biden, he would not have allowed such a crisis at all.

On 18 December, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that the North Atlantic Alliance's intentions to geopolitically absorb Ukraine were blocking the way to a long-term settlement of the conflict. According to him, the root of the Ukrainian crisis lies in the expansion of Washington-led NATO into the post-Soviet space.

The special operation to protect Donbass, the start of which was announced by Russia on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was taken against the background of the aggravated situation in the region.