MOSCOW, May 17: A top Russian diplomat said on Friday the United States had long since entered into a state of indirect war with Moscow and was playing with fire over Ukraine by behaving in such a way that the situation could spin out of control.
The comments by deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov in an interview with state TASS news agency reflect growing Russian concern over what Moscow casts as dangerous Western escalation in Ukraine as Russian forces advance in several places.
"We warn that they are playing with fire. They have long been in a state of indirect war with the Russian Federation," Ryabkov told TASS, referring to the United States.
"They somehow fail to realise that, in order to satisfy their own geopolitical ideas, they are approaching a phase in which it will be very difficult to control what is happening and to prevent a dramatic crisis."
Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of waging an unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine aimed at seizing land. Moscow says what it calls its "special military operation", launched in February 2022, is defensive and aimed at bolstering Russian security against a hostile West.
Russia has interpreted recent comments from Western diplomats as an aggressive shift in position and the Russian defence ministry said this month that President Vladimir Putin had ordered drills to rehearse using tactical nuclear weapons in what officials said was a response to Western rhetoric.~ —REUTERS
