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Moscow will not turn blind eye to most serious provocations by NATO, EU — Lavrov

Russia never allows the infringement of its legitimate, national interests, the Russian Foreign Minister pointed out

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. Moscow will not ignore the most serious provocations by NATO and the EU, including in their attempts to play along with the militarists in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reported on Friday following talks with Swedish Foreign Minister and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office Ann Linde.

"We are open to dialogue with our Western colleagues. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about this in great detail yesterday at an expanded meeting of the board of the Foreign Ministry. We will not turn a blind eye to the gross provocations that we witness on a daily basis by NATO members and more often by the European Union, including in their attempts to play up to warmongers in Ukraine, orchestrate some kind of military training missions for Ukrainians, prepare the Ukrainian army for the very actions that we are constantly threatened with, stating that they will take Donbass by force, unwilling to fulfill the Minsk agreements, and encroach on Russia’s Crimea," the minister said.

"The West condones all this belligerent rhetoric and the military preparations in Ukraine. We witness what is happening, but I assure you that we never allow the infringement of our legitimate, national interests. We have all the means to ensure this," the minister concluded.