Decision-making Centers in Kiev May be Targets of Russia’s Strikes, Says Lavrov

Moscow selects targets for strikes on the territory of Ukraine, proceeding solely from threats to Russia, the foreign minister stressed

© Russian Foreign Ministry/TASS

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. Decision-making centers in Kiev may be targets of Russia’s strikes depending on existing threats but Moscow never hits civilian facilities, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with domestic and foreign media outlets on Thursday.

"We select targets for strikes on the territory of Ukraine, proceeding solely from threats to Russia. These may be military facilities and defense enterprises. Decision-making centers in Kiev can also quite be such targets. But it is not in our rules to deliver retaliatory strikes on civilian targets. These are the rules of the Nazis who have entrenched themselves in Kiev with the support of the West and these are the rules of those who are supplying them with weapons for destroying merely civilian infrastructure and civilians," Russia’s top diplomat said.

Kiev daily delivers strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles and Western missiles against "obvious civilian targets," Lavrov stressed.

"Civilians are killed in these strikes. The strikes are delivered on ambulances, goods markets and other civilian facilities," the Russian foreign minister went on to say.

"No one from the Western states suppling weapons to the Nazi regime in Kiev has ever cautioned it against engaging in this gross violation of international humanitarian law and warfare rules," Lavrov said.

"As long as the Kiev regime continues to behave in this manner, and this is not only encouraged but is also directed by the West, including France, we will respond but we will respond not in the way this is done by the Kiev regime at your instigation," the Russian foreign minister said, replying to a question from a French journalist.

"We take aim solely at military facilities, military-industrial sites and other installations related to the supplies of the Ukrainian armed forces," Lavrov said.