Aggression against Russia will be met with ‘decisive response’, minister says
Russia’s top diplomat has assured world leaders that his nation has no intention of attacking Europe, but warned that any aggression against Russia will be met with a decisive response.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made these remarks amid rising tensions caused by unauthorized flights into NATO airspace, which have been attributed to Russia in recent weeks. These incidents have heightened alarm across Europe, especially after NATO jets downed drones over Poland and Estonia reported that Russian fighter jets entered its territory.
Moscow has denied that its planes violated Estonian airspace and claimed that the drones did not target Poland. Belarus, a close ally of Russia, suggested that Ukrainian signal-jamming technology caused the drones to veer off course. Meanwhile, Lavrov insisted that Russia is the party facing threats.
“Russia has never had and does not have any such intentions of attacking European or NATO countries,” he stated. “However, any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response.”
Lavrov’s comments come three years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a conflict widely condemned by the international community. In a notable shift, US President Donald Trump recently expressed belief that Ukraine can reclaim all the territory it has lost to Russia. This contrasts with his previous stance, which implied Ukraine might need to make concessions and that it could never recover all regions occupied since Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.
Just three weeks prior, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Russia and the US had reached a mutual understanding and that the Trump administration was listening to Russian concerns.
Trump’s updated position emerged after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. This meeting came seven months after a highly publicized confrontation between the two leaders in the Oval Office. Unlike before, the recent meeting was held behind closed doors and was described as “a good meeting” by Zelensky in his General Assembly speech the following day.
For the fourth consecutive year, President Zelensky appealed to the international gathering of presidents, prime ministers, and other top officials to expel Russia from Ukraine. He warned that failure to act would endanger other countries as well. “Ukraine is only the first,” he said.
Russia has justified its war in Ukraine with various explanations, including concerns about its own security following NATO’s eastward expansion over the years.
https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/aggression-against-russia-will-be-met-with-decisive-response-minister-says-1811920.html
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