Russia was not attempting to play any games when it was proposing security guarantees to the West, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on the results of Russian diplomatic activities in 2021 on Friday, TASS reports.
"We were not attempting to play any games and were not trying to follow the scenario that somebody in Ukraine mentioned, I mean, ‘ask for more, they’ll give you less’," he said responding to a question on the matter.
"This is a well-known trick which is used both in daily life and in politics. In our case, this is much more serious. We absolutely do not accept the arrival of the North Atlantic Alliance right on our borders, especially considering the direction taken by the Ukrainian leadership, both past and present, unfortunately. Moreover, these are real red lines and they know this," the Russian top diplomat added.
According to him, even if Ukraine remains outside of NATO, "bilateral agreements are possible with the Americans, with the British, with other Western countries that create military objects there, bases on the Sea of Azov." "This is also unacceptable to us because the deployment of assault weapons that would present a threat to the Russian Federation on the territory of our neighbors, in this case, Ukraine, is yet another red line," the Russian foreign minister said.
"They (the European Union) are now actively promoting their plans on sending a military instructional mission to Ukraine. That is, they also want to contribute to the training of essentially anti-Russian units," the diplomat noted.
