Russia will use ‘even stronger military means’ if Western pressure continues, warns deputy foreign minister

CNN

By Frederik Pleitgen and Edward Szekeres, CNN

Moscow (CNN) — Russia will resort to “even stronger military means” in its war with Ukraine if the US and its allies fail to recognize it cannot be tested indefinitely, Moscow’s deputy foreign minister told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.

“Risks are high and they are growing, and that’s quite disturbing,” Sergei Ryabkov said during a sit-down interview in Moscow, adding that the current geopolitical tensions were unheard of even “at the height of the Cold War.”

Ryabkov said there was “no magic solution” to the conflict. He claimed there is a lack of common sense and “restraint in the West, in particular the US, where people seemingly underestimate our resolve to defend our core national security interests.”

US President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday announced a $725 million security assistance package for Ukraine. It called the package an attempt to put Kyiv “in the strongest possible position” as Russia steps up its attacks and Biden prepares to leave office in less than two months.

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.

The risk of military escalation shouldn’t be underestimated and depends on decisions in Washington, Ryabkov said, while citing the US government’s “very obvious inability to truly appreciate that Moscow cannot be pressurized indefinitely.”

“There will come a moment when we will see no other choice but to resort to even stronger military means,” the minister said, adding an escalation is unlikely to happen “right away.”

“But the trend is there,” he said.

Referring to the outgoing Biden administration, Ryabkov said Russia will respond to any provocation and “find a way to assert our strong will.”

Russia has also threatened to strike Ukraine again with the nuclear-capable “Oreshnik” ballistic missile that Moscow used in its widespread attack on critical energy infrastructure in late November.

Ryabkov said Oreshnik “is not a strategic ballistic missile, it’s an intermediate-range missile tested in combat.”

Former US President Donald Trump’s 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.

‘Zero’ chance of compromise

Had it not been for Trump’s decision, “there would be no Oreshnik in our hands and we would be restrained in our capability to develop such weapons,” Ryabkov added.

Russia has not had direct contact with Trump or his team regarding the president-elect’s earlier comments on ending the Ukraine war in one day, according to Ryabkov. “We will be there when they come with ideas … but not at the expense of our national interest,” the minister said.

Addressing the possibility of peace talks with Ukraine, Ryabkov said the two countries’ positions are incompatible.

“Chances for a compromise at the moment are zero. The moment people in Kyiv begin to understand there’s no way Russia will go the way they suggested – there might be openings and opportunities.”

Katharina Krebs contributed reporting.

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