MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/. NATO countries are increasingly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, with the United States intentionally proceeding with an escalation on this track, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Thursday.
"NATO members are increasingly and directly involved in this conflict. Their support for Kiev is now much diversified than it was a few months ago. This is a reflection of Washington’s intentional policy, obediently pursued by the Europeans, of escalating the conflict. They are playing with fire. The risks are soaring," Ryabkov said.
Moscow does not see that the West has any caps on the range of arms supplies to Ukraine.
"The Westerners are pushing ahead with expanding the range of deliveries of ever heavier, longer-range weapons. At the same time, they slyly and deceitfully, by and large, try to create an impression that there is some kind of a border line, some kind of self-restraint in this regard. We do not see anything like that," Ryabkov emphasized.
He stressed that the Russian side was conducting bilateral diplomatic work on this issue, primarily with unfriendly countries, "to warn them of the consequences of these steps." The UN Security Council is the central platform for resisting such Western practices, Ryabkov said.
"All diplomatic tools - demarches, protests, notes, appeals on specialized platforms, and diplomatic clashes in Vienna and in New York, where there are opportunities to drive the message home and to warn our opponents - are being used to the full extent," Ryabkov said.