Lavrov warns US not to mock Russia’s ‘red lines’

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, responding to a question about the potential delivery of long-range US missiles to Ukraine, warned the United States on Wednesday not to joke about Russia’s “red lines.”

Lavrov said the US was losing sight of the sense of mutual deterrence that had underpinned the balance of security between Moscow and Washington since the Cold War, and that this was dangerous.

He was commenting on a Reuters report that the US is close to an agreement to supply Ukraine with long-range JASSM cruise missiles that could reach deep inside Russia – for which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been lobbying.

“I won’t be surprised by anything – the Americans have already crossed the threshold they set for themselves. They are being egged on, and Zelenskyy of course sees this and takes advantage of it,” Lavrov told a Russian TV interviewer.

“But they should understand – they are joking about our red lines here. They shouldn’t joke about our red lines.”

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned the West since launching what he called his “special military operation” in Ukraine in 2022 not to try to thwart Russia, which has the world’s biggest arsenal of nuclear weapons.

But Washington and its allies have increased military aid to Ukraine, including by providing tanks, advanced missiles and F-16 fighter jets.