Russia made a big statement about the war, warned Ukraine about this

Amid reports of Russia attacking Ukraine, the US and Germany have said a gas pipeline doubling Russian natural gas supplies to Germany could be hit if the Putin regime strikes.

MOSCOW: Amid fears of an invasion of Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow would not start a war, but warned that it would not allow Western countries to trample on its security interests.

US President Joe Biden warned Ukraine’s president a day earlier that there was a clear possibility that Russia could take military action against his country in February. Foreign Minister Lavrov said in an interview with a Russian radio station, ‘As long as it is up to the Russian Federation, there will be no war, we do not want war. But we will not allow our interests to be trampled upon and neglected.

Russia has mobilized more than a million soldiers near the Ukrainian border, raising fears of war in the region. Russia has consistently denied that it is planning an attack on Ukraine, but the US and its NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies believe that Russia is heading towards war and is preparing for it.

Russia’s main demands include not including Ukraine in NATO and the removal of such weapons from the region, which could threaten Russia. The US and NATO have strongly rejected any concessions to Russia’s main demands. However, to reduce tension, the US has emphasized on those issues which can be discussed.

Now, Russian President Vladimir Putin will decide on these proposals and it will decide whether Ukraine will be attacked or not. Meanwhile, Russia’s presidential office, the Kremlin, has said there is little room for hope after the US and NATO’s response.

Lavrov said on Friday, ‘They have said that they will not change their stand, we will not change our stand either. I don’t see any room for compromise here. Putin on Friday began his weekly meeting of the Security Council by saying only that it would discuss foreign policy issues.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Putin could discuss the US’ rejection of the proposals in online talks with French President Emmanuel Macron. Lavrov mentioned that the US has suggested that the two sides can discuss rules on limiting the deployment of medium-range missiles, stopping military exercises and preventing crashes of warships and aircraft.

He said that Russia had proposed to discuss these issues years ago but the US and its allies never paid heed to it. Lavrov described US proposals for talks on confidence-building measures as logical but stressed that Russia’s main concerns were to prevent the expansion of NATO and the deployment of coalition weapons along Russia’s borders.

He said that international agreements say that the security of one nation should not be at the cost of others and he would send letters to his Western counterparts to fulfill that obligation. As tensions rise, the US has warned Russia of imposing harsh sanctions if it attacks Ukraine.

Asked about possible sanctions, Lavrov said Moscow has warned Washington that any move by him would amount to a complete severance of ties. Russia and the West are considering their next steps.

Meanwhile, NATO said it was increasing its deterrence in the Baltic Sea region. The US has ordered 8,500 troops to be on alert for possible deployment to Europe. Russia has launched a series of military exercises, deploying infantry and artillery units in the southwest, fighters in Kaliningrad in the Baltic Sea region, and dozens of warships in the Black Sea and the Arctic.

Russian troops have marched toward Belarus for joint exercises, raising fears of Western nations that Moscow may attack Ukraine from the north. The capital of Ukraine is just 75 kilometers from the border with Belarus.

At the same time, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksey Reznikov told parliament on Friday that there are about 130,000 Russian troops stationed near the country’s border, the number of which is the same as the deployment during the summer of 2021. He said that apart from the presence of Russian forces in Belarus, nowhere have we seen any different military activity compared to last summer.