Russia ready to use 'any means' to avoid 'strategic defeat', says Lavrov

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov clarified that the Dnipro attack was an answer to the West's decision to allow Ukraine to fire long-range conventional missiles into Russia.

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Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson, has said that the new hypersonic missile used by his country to strike Ukraine showed that Russia is ready to use any means to prevent the West from achieving its goal of inflicting a "strategic defeat" on the country.

Russia is ready to send additional messages if the West does not draw the necessary conclusions after the use of the Oreshnik missile, Lavrov said in the interview to the American journalist as cited by Russian news agency TASS.

The top aide of Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine is possible only if Kiev abandons its plans to join NATO, closes Western military bases in the country and cancels exercises involving foreign troops.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had used its new Oreshnik hypersonic missile on its November 21 strike against Ukrainian city Dnipro.