Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov gave a video English-language interview to RT in St. Petersburg, on Sept. 11, on the sidelines of the BRICS Security Forum. RT asked about the possibility that Washington “is about to allow Kyiv to use its long-range ATACMS missiles against internationally recognized Russian territory,” which they had previously “put a ban on. What will Russia’s reaction on the diplomatic track be?” Ryabkov replied: “Number one: This is yet another possible escalatory step on the part of Washington. Washington completely and totally controls Kyiv. No doubt that no move on the part of Kyiv clients could be done without the blessings and/or assistance in all forms, which is also deepening and growing from the U.S. and other Western allies. It’s troubling, it’s dangerous, it’s threatening, but our resolve to achieve all goals of the special military operation are unwavering as ever.
“Now we do think, as was before, with previous deliveries by the U.S. of lethal weapons to the Kyiv regime all will be destroyed, and our adversaries on the battlefield will be defeated, no doubt. So, no goals that they set before them with this will be achieved through this, but the dangers and risks will grow. The U.S. begins to look into the abyss. They live in a world of dark fantasies that they develop for themselves, phantoms that haunt them, one of those being in a year that a nuclear power, which is Russia, can be defeated on the battlefield. It may well end very badly for them and for all of those who simply close their eyes to this very dire reality.”
Ryabkov confirmed that with respect to “internationally recognized Russian territory,” Moscow makes no distinction between those people who use their right for self-determination, no difference between these territories and what you describe as “internationally recognized borders of Russia.” As we said, “the initiative on the battlefield is with Moscow, and our people there will be protected against what is going on on the part of this criminal regime in Kyiv, and its sponsors in Washington and elsewhere.”
