Foreign Minister Lavrov Says Russia Is Ready to Face the West If It Wants to Fight for Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. (Wikimedia Commons/Have you guys?

JAKARTA - Russia is ready to face the West if they want to fight for Ukraine on the battlefield, said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"That's their right, if they want war to happen on the battlefield, it will happen on the battlefield," said Foreign Minister Lavrov, citing Reuters from RIA, May 13.

Russia is known to have stepped up warnings about the dangers of direct confrontation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), since French President Emmanuel Macron refused to rule out the possibility that Western troops would one day be sent to the Ukrainian battlefield.

Foreign Minister Lavrov emphasized that Russia is ready to negotiate peace not only with words, but also with deeds.

"(During the talks) in Istanbul, we were just one step away from signing the initial document to end the special military operation on terms that Ukrainian sponsors now recognize are very beneficial for Ukraine," explained Foreign Minister Lavrov, quoted by TASS.

"Our political analysts also say so. And I agree with this," he added.

According to Foreign Minister Lavrov, the Istanbul talks were Russia's latest attempt "to expand trust and show goodwill, despite some past deception on the part of the West."

"And we were misled again, so they forced us to fight," he concluded.

Previously, President Vladimir Putin said this could lead to World War Three, while the Kremlin said last week that sending NATO troops to Ukraine was potentially very dangerous.

"We have repeatedly said that direct intervention on the ground in this conflict by the militaries of NATO countries has the potential to cause enormous harm, so we consider this a very challenging provocation, and, of course, we are watching it very carefully," explained Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.