MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. Russia does not want a nuclear war with the US and is doing everything to prevent it, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with noted US journalist Tucker Carlson.
"We hate even to think about war with the United States, which will take nuclear character. Our military doctrine says that the most important thing is to avoid a nuclear war. And it was us, by the way, who initiated in January 2022 the message, the joint statement by the leaders of the five permanent members of the Security Council saying that we will do anything to avoid confrontation between us, acknowledging and respecting each other's security interests and concerns. This was our initiative," the top Russian diplomat said.
"And the security interests of Russia were totally ignored when they rejected about the same time the proposal to conclude a treaty on security guarantees for Russia, for Ukraine in the context of coexistence and in the context where Ukraine would not be ever member of NATO or any other military bloc. These security interests of Russia were presented to the West, to NATO and to the United States in December 2021. We discussed them several times, including during my meeting with Antony Blinken in Geneva in January 2022. And this was rejected," Lavrov noted.
Russia is ready to deliver additional "messages" if the West does not draw any conclusions following the use of the Oreshnik hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile system, he added.
"We would certainly like to avoid any misunderstanding. And since the people, some people in Washington and some people in London, in Brussels, seemed to be not very capable to understand, we will send additional ‘messages’ if they don't draw necessary conclusions," the Russian foreign minister stressed.