Russia FM: Defense Will Use 'All Means'12/06 06:01

   Russia's top diplomat said in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker 
Carlson released Friday that Moscow doesn't want a war with the United States 
but will use "all means" to defend its interests.

   MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's top diplomat said in an interview with former Fox 
News host Tucker Carlson released Friday that Moscow doesn't want a war with 
the United States but will use "all means" to defend its interests.

   Sergey Lavrov argued that while Russia and the U.S. are officially not at 
war, Washington's permission for Ukraine to use American longer-range missiles 
for strikes on Russian territory marked a dangerous escalation.

   "It is obvious that the Ukrainians would not be able to do what they're 
doing with long-range modern weapons without direct participation of the 
American servicemen. And this is dangerous, no doubt about this," he said, 
adding that the Western belief that Russia's red lines could be "moved again 
and again" is "a very serious mistake."

   Lavrov, the world's longest-serving foreign minister who has been on the job 
for 20 years, said that a recent Russian strike on Ukraine with a new 
hypersonic intermediate range ballistic missile called Oreshnik was a signal to 
the West that Russia is prepared to use all means to achieve its goals in 
Ukraine.

   "The message which we wanted to send by testing in real action this 
hypersonic system is that we will be ready to do anything to defend our 
legitimate interests," he said. "The United States, and the allies of the 
United States who also provide these long-range weapons to the Kyiv regime, 
they must understand that we would be ready to use any means not to allow them 
to succeed in what they call strategic defeat of Russia."

   Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the Nov. 21 attack with 
Oreshnik as a response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian military facilities in 
Bryansk and Kursk regions with Western-supplied weapons.

   He has declared that in the case of new attacks on Russia with Western 
longer-range weapons, Russia could use Oreshnik to hit the government district 
in Kyiv. Putin also warned that Russia could use the new missile to strike 
military facilities of Kyiv's Western allies that allow Ukraine to use their 
weapons for attacks on Russian territory.

   Putin hailed Oreshnik's capability, saying that its multiple warheads that 
plunge to a target at 10 times the speed of sound are immune to intercept by 
any existing air defense systems. Russia's missile forces chief said that the 
missile, which can carry conventional or nuclear warheads, has a range allowing 
it to reach all of Europe.

   Lavrov said that Russia has issued a warning to the U.S. about the Oreshnik 
launch 30 minutes before it happened using an automated system used to exchange 
such advance notices.

   He said that "we hate even to think about war with the United States, which 
will take nuclear character," but he warned that any potential exchange of 
nuclear strikes between Russia and NATO allies in Europe will inevitably 
escalate into a wider conflict in which the U.S. will be targeted.

   "To speak about limited exchange of nuclear strikes is an invitation to 
disaster, which we don't want to have," Lavrov said.

   Speaking about the Kremlin conditions for a potential peace deal, he 
reaffirmed Putin's demand that Ukraine should pull back its forces from the 
four regions that Russia annexed in September 2022 and renounce its bid to join 
NATO. He added that any peace agreement must secure the rights of Russian 
speakers in Ukraine.

   Asked about his view of Donald Trump, Lavrov described him as "a very strong 
person, a person who wants results, who doesn't like procrastination on 
anything."