MUSCAT, May 11. /TASS/. Moscow by no means wishes to see a war in Europe, while the West keeps talking about the need for defeating Russia over Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference on Wednesday following talks with his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Al Busaidi.

"We are greatly worried by the risk of a war in Europe. We do not wish to see it happen at all, but I would like to draw your attention to the fact that it is the West that keeps talking persistently about inflicting a defeat upon Russia. It is up to you to derive conclusions," he said.

"The goals that we seek in Ukraine are pretty clear - preventing violations of the rights of the Russian and Russian-speaking population of Donbass, which was under a threat of extermination by the regime in Kiev, and ruling out the emergence of a stronghold on the Ukrainian territory that the West might use to pose military threats to Russia," Lavrov said.

Asked about Russia’s strategy in the struggle against a monopolar world, Lavrov said that it was essential "to comply with obligations under the UN Charter, including the pledge to respect the principle of the sovereign equality of states, to forget colonial habits and to abandon neo-imperialist sentiment.".