MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/. Russia is ready to cope with new challenges due to the supplies of increasingly long-range weapons to Ukraine by the US and its NATO allies, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview published on Wednesday in the International Affairs magazine.
"We see how the US continues to pump the Kiev regime with increasingly lethal long-range weapons, how there is an expansion of multifaceted assistance in a variety of areas from intelligence to training of soldiers and fighters of other units, with not only Americans but many other NATO allies involved in this work. That creates new challenges, and we're ready to deal with them," he said.
"But we are not ready to speculate that, conventionally, if a bullet of this caliber is supplied in such a quantity, it is one situation, and if it is not supplied, it is another, and if something else is supplied, then we will reassess everything at all then," Ryabkov added.
The senior diplomat stressed that there was no shortage of communication channels with Western countries so far and Moscow had opportunities to convey its position. "Therefore, if there are circumstances that require even tougher warnings from our side, we will certainly use these channels and in Washington, as well as in the capitals of those states that obediently, in fact, close their eyes and follow what they are ordered from Washington, will clearly understand and realize the degree of risks and the nature of possible consequences, if they go for further aggravation," he pointed out.
Ryabkov recalled that one of the elements of the Russian initiative to conclude legally binding agreements with the US and NATO on security guarantees was the warning that the West's lack of willingness to meet Russia's key demands would mean crossing a certain red line. "I don't think there are many people in the world today who would argue that when this red line was crossed, there were consequences, which we had also warned about, sending signals that the response would be military and technical, in which few in the West believed, expecting Russia to backtrack and show weakness. This did not happen," the Deputy Foreign Minister said.