MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/. Moscow is grateful to Freetown for its balanced and principal position regarding the situation around Ukraine, which emerged due to the West’s hybrid war against Russia, Russian Acting Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during the press conference with his Sierra Leonean counterpart Timothy Kabba.

"We have confirmed our gratitude for Sierra Leone’s principal position on the issues regarding the situation around Ukraine that emerged as a result of the hybrid war against Russia, which the West has been preparing for a long time in order to weaken our country, to create threats to its security and to strip millions and millions of Russian-speaking people of Crimea and Donbass of their legitimate rights," Lavrov said.

According to the acting minister, despite all agreements that were achieved during the last 8 years with Western involvement, "nothing has been done, which has led to the beginning of the special military operation."

"I will say it again: we are grateful to our African friends, in particular - to our friends from Sierra Leone, for their balanced, weighed position, for understanding of reasons that have led to the current situation," Lavrov underscored.