Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the West on Saturday that any attack on Moscow would receive a “decisive response,” warning off attempts to shoot down planes over Russian airspace and blaming Germany for belligerent rhetoric.
While Russia’s war in Ukraine intensifies, tensions have been rising along NATO’s eastern frontier in recent weeks as Estonia reported Moscow deployed three fighter planes into its skies and NATO fighter jets downed Russian drones over Poland.
“Any aggression towards my country will be met with a resolute response.”.
There can be no question about this among those in the NATO and the EU who … are informing their voters that war with Russia is inevitable,” he said to the United Nations General Assembly.
The recent wave of airspace violations attributed to Russia has alarmed nations in the eastern part of Europe where Russia is regarded as the greatest threat following the Cold War. Expectations for any sooner-than-soon conclusion of Moscow’s war in Ukraine have been lost.
US President Donald Trump told this week that he supported the proposal to shoot down Russian aircraft, opens tab that intrude into NATO airspace, as part of a shift in rhetoric in which he mocked the Russian military performance in Ukraine and called it a paper tiger.
Lavrov dismissed Trump’s latest comments in a press conference after his General Assembly address, but issued a threat on any action against planes within Russia.
“If there are attempts at shooting down any flying object, any object… within our airspace, then I think people will very much regret taking such a flagrant infringement on our territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he stated.
He informed the U.N. General Assembly that Russia never attacked EU and NATO nations with drones or missiles and had no intentions of doing so in the future.
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Russia warns West: any aggression will meet ‘decisive response’
He added that only the “politically blind” would hope Ukraine would one day return to its pre-February 2022 Russian invasion borders, a veiled rebuke of Trump’s claim that Kyiv can recover all its occupied territories from Russia.
Lavrov also specifically named German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, citing what he described as “militaristic rhetoric” and stated Moscow was disturbed by it when politicians in EU and NATO capitals spoke of an imminent World War Three as a “probable scenario.”
RUSSIA HOPES FOR ‘FRANK DIALOGUE’
Even as he fired at NATO and the European Union, Lavrov did signal Moscow was still counting on “frank dialogue” with the United States under Trump even after the U.S. president’s recent change of heart.
The U.S. and Russia will have a third round of discussions in a few months’ time on how to enhance each other’s embassy functions, which have been badly hampered by a decade of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and other restrictions, he added.
Lavrov sat down with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday on the sidelines of the annual meeting of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.
Lavrov indicated that he did not perceive economic relations between Russia and India as being threatened, as Trump has imposed tariffs on Indian products, calling on it – and China – to cease buying Russian oil.
RUSSIA CONCERNED OVER US BUILDUP NEAR VENEZUELA
Even as Lavrov was restrained in his tone about Trump, he expressed concern about a U.S. naval presence and military intervention in international waters off Venezuela to fight drug cartels, calling the situation “very serious.”
Without mentioning the U.S., Lavrov asked if “certain creative actors” might attempt to use a draft UN Security Council resolution being proposed to establish a more general international force to battle gangs in Haiti as a pretext for an attack inside Venezuela.
The proposed text currently under consideration by the 15-member council has been submitted by the US and Panama. It requires a minimum of nine votes and no vetoes from Russia, China, the US, France or Britain to be approved.
“I don’t exclude that some creative actors might imagine obtaining a mandate at the Security Council and further informing us that gangs from Haiti are sheltered in Venezuela. I cannot exclude that,” Lavrov declared.
