Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said that any countries providing military equipment to aid Ukraine in its fight against the Russian incursion would be considered “legitimate targets” for any Russian strikes.
In a statement, Lavrov told the RT television channel that any cargo containing foreign supplies that Russia believes to include military equipment will be “fair game.” “We clearly said that any cargo moving into the Ukrainian territory which we would believe is carrying weapons would be fair game,” he said.
“This is clear because we are implementing the operation the goal of which is to remove any threat to the Russian Federation coming from the Ukrainian soil.” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made similar comments last week, the Financial Times reported.
“We warned the United States that the orchestrated pumping of weapons from a number of countries is not just a dangerous move, it is a move that turns these convoys into legitimate targets,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state television. He said Moscow had warned, “about the consequences of the thoughtless transfer to Ukraine of weapons like man-portable air defense systems, anti-tank missile systems, and so on.”
Ryabkov said Washington had not taken Moscow’s warnings seriously and added that Russia and the US were not holding any “negotiation processes” on Ukraine. He also denounced the US sanctions against Moscow as an “unprecedented attempt to deal a serious blow to various sectors of the Russian economy,” but noted that Moscow will act in a measured way to avoid hurting itself.
