MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. The UK's demands for Russia to withdraw its troops from its own territory are regrettable, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following talks with his British counterpart Liz Truss in Moscow on Thursday.
"We haven’t heard any other intonation [at the meeting]. The demands to remove Russian troops from Russian territory were not changing in any way in response to our arguments. In the very least, this causes regret," the Russian top diplomat noted.
Lately, Ukraine and the West have been increasingly echoing claims of an alleged possible Russian "invasion" of Ukraine ever more frequently. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov branded such information as an "empty and groundless" escalation of tensions, emphasizing that Russia does not pose a threat to anyone. That said, he didn’t exclude the possibility of provocations being whipped up in order to justify such claims and warned that attempts to resolve the problem in southeastern Ukraine through the use of force would have the most serious consequences.