\u201cRisks are high and they are growing, and that\u2019s quite disturbing,\u201d Sergei Ryabkov said during a sit-down interview in Moscow, adding that the current geopolitical tensions were unheard of even \u201cat the height of the Cold War.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ryabkov said there was \u201cno magic solution\u201d to the conflict. He claimed there is a lack of common sense and \u201crestraint in the West, in particular the US, where people seemingly underestimate our resolve to defend our core national security interests.\u201d <\/p>\n
US President Joe Biden\u2019s administration on Tuesday announced a $725 million security assistance package for Ukraine. It called the package an attempt to put Kyiv \u201cin the strongest possible position\u201d as Russia steps up its attacks and Biden prepares to leave office in less than two months. <\/p>\n
The administration has a matter of weeks to use up nearly $7 billion, part of a larger package authorized by Congress earlier this year to help Ukraine in the war, which began in February 2022. <\/p>\n
The risk of military escalation shouldn\u2019t be underestimated and depends on decisions in Washington, Ryabkov said, while citing the US government\u2019s \u201cvery obvious inability to truly appreciate that Moscow cannot be pressurized indefinitely.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThere will come a moment when we will see no other choice but to resort to even stronger military means,\u201d the minister said, adding an escalation is unlikely to happen \u201cright away.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cBut the trend is there,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Referring to the outgoing Biden administration, Ryabkov said Russia will respond to any provocation and \u201cfind a way to assert our strong will.\u201d <\/p>\n
Russia has also threatened to strike Ukraine again with the nuclear-capable \u201cOreshnik\u201d ballistic missile that Moscow used in its widespread attack on critical energy infrastructure in late November. <\/p>\n
Ryabkov said Oreshnik \u201cis not a strategic ballistic missile, it\u2019s an intermediate-range missile tested in combat.\u201d <\/p>\n
Former US President Donald Trump\u2019s 2019 decision to withdraw the US from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a decades-old arms control agreement between the US and Russia, paved the way for Moscow developing its new ballistic arsenal, Ryabkov said. <\/p>\n
Had it not been for Trump\u2019s decision, \u201cthere would be no Oreshnik in our hands and we would be restrained in our capability to develop such weapons,\u201d Ryabkov added. <\/p>\n
Russia has not had direct contact with Trump or his team regarding the president-elect\u2019s earlier comments on ending the Ukraine war in one day, according to Ryabkov. \u201cWe will be there when they come with ideas \u2026 but not at the expense of our national interest,\u201d the minister said. <\/p>\n
Addressing the possibility of peace talks with Ukraine, Ryabkov said the two countries\u2019 positions are incompatible. <\/p>\n
\u201cChances for a compromise at the moment are zero. The moment people in Kyiv begin to understand there\u2019s no way Russia will go the way they suggested \u2013 there might be openings and opportunities.\u201d <\/p>\n
Katharina Krebs contributed reporting.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cRisks are high and they are growing, and that\u2019s quite disturbing,\u201d Sergei Ryabkov said during a sit-down interview in Moscow, adding that the current geopolitical tensions were unheard of even \u201cat the height of the Cold War.\u201d Ryabkov said there was \u201cno magic solution\u201d to the conflict. He claimed there is a lack of common…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}