Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated that the more long-range weapons are supplied to the Kiev regime by the West, the further they must be moved away from Russia's borders.
In an interview with Sputnik, he underscored that the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine is growing.
"The fact that the West cannot calm down - and, as in the infamous fairy tales, with every step it gets stuck even more in the swamp - this plays an important role in the course of the [Russian special military] operation. This escalation, you are absolutely right, is snowballing,” Lavrov said.
He added that "now we are trying to move the Ukrainian army's artillery so that it cannot pose a threat to our borders, but the West is going to supply long-range weapons, which means we will have to move it further."
The top Russian diplomat stressed that everybody wants the conflict in Ukraine to end, but the time factor is not the main one.
"We all want this to end, but it is not the time factor that is important here, the essence factor is of importance, the factor of the quality of the results that we provide for our people, for those who want to remain part of Russian culture," Lavrov said.
According to Lavrov, the West is trying to defeat Russia in such a way that it can't recover for decades, which is an attempt to solve the “Russian issue”.
“Why do people refuse to see the Nazi ideology that now underlies the Kiev regime? All those statements that are being made by his supporters and puppet masters, well, I don't see any way to regard them otherwise as an attempt to finally solve the ‘Russian issue’.”
He added that it seems that the West will supply Kiev with modern military equipment together with foreign combat crews.
"All types of weapons that have already been partially transferred, and especially those that have been announced, according to experts, it is impossible for Ukrainians to work on these systems, trained or having passed some two-month or even three-month courses. There are systems, according to specialists, that cannot be trained for in the foreseeable future, and if they are supplied, then most likely it will be done together with combat crews," Lavrov noted.
The Russian foreign minister also said that Moscow hadn't turned to its Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) partners with a request for assistance in connection with Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.
"We have not made such a request to anyone. We proceed from the fact that we have everything necessary to solve the tasks of the special military operation, to end the war that the West started through the Ukrainian regime even after the coup d'etat," he underlined.
The remarks come after German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius last month announced Berlin’s decision to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, something that was followed by US President Joe Biden saying that Washington will deliver 31 Abrams tanks to Kiev.
The Russian Embassy in Germany warned that “this extremely dangerous decision [by Berlin] shifts the Ukrainian conflict to a new level of standoff.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, for his part, told reporters that arms supplies to Ukraine by Western countries testify to their direct and growing involvement in the conflict.
"There are constant statements from European capitals and from Washington that the sending of various weapons systems, including tanks, to Ukraine in no way means the involvement of these countries or the alliance in the hostilities that are taking place in Ukraine. We categorically disagree with this," Peskov added.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that by sending military aid to Kiev, he US and its allies are only prolonging the Ukrainian conflict. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that NATO countries “play with fire" by supplying weapons to Kiev, and that any convoy of arms for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russian forces.