Kremlin Affirms Russia Will Retaliate against New Sanctions

The Kremlin affirmed, on Friday, that Russia will retaliate against new sanctions, after the West hit Moscow with a wave of economic punishments over its invasion of Ukraine.

“It goes without saying that retaliatory measures will follow,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Just how symmetrical or asymmetrical they will depend on the analysis, the restrictions have yet to be analysed.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia does not want “neo-Nazis” to rule Ukraine, adding: “We are ready for talks once the Ukrainian army stops fighting, no one plans to attack the Ukrainian people.”

Moreover, Lavrov asserted that they recognize Vladimir Zelensky as President of Ukraine.

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova affirmed that Russia’s special operation in Ukraine is not the beginning of a war.

Zakharova stated that the operation is called to prevent a global confrontation and put an end to hostilities in Donbass.

“This is not a beginning of war. It prevents a global military confrontation and puts an end to the war that has been underway [in Donbass],” Zakharova said.

“The war was waged on different fronts: we experienced the pressure of sanctions and on the information front we saw some monstrous fakes against us one cannot read about in any textbook,” she added. “Also, there was a psychological war – attempts were made to set our people and our elite against each other, and so on.”