According to the Russian diplomatic service, Lavrov assured that such talk encourages the Kiev authorities to sabotage the Minsk agreements on peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Donbass and intends to solve the problem by force.

On the other hand, the Russian Foreign Minister said the response of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to Moscow’s proposals on security guarantees ignores key demands of Russia.

In this regard, he cited the non-expansion of the Alliance to the east and a ban on the deployment of strike weapons systems near Russia’s borders.

The head of Moscow’s diplomacy warned these issues will be the focus of Russia’s assessment of the documents received from Washington and NATO, the statement said.

Lavrov reminded Blinken that actions that violate the commitments made at the highest level on the indivisibility of security in the Euro-Atlantic area are unacceptable.

Speeches by Western politicians, diplomats and media about alleged Russian plans against Kiev were repeated over the past two months, actions denounced by Moscow.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov called this strategy an empty and unfounded escalation of tension and emphasized that Russia does not represent a threat to anyone.

He also warned about the possibility of using the alleged Russian attack as an argument for provocations to justify such words.

For the head of the Kremlin’s press office, attempts to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine by force will have serious consequences.

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