Russia Says It Will Continue Its War On Ukraine Until The End
MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that he believed some foreign leaders were preparing for war against Russia and that Russia will continue its war and military operations on Ukraine until 'the end'.
Lavrov also said that Russia has no thoughts of nuclear war in its mind and that he has no doubt that a solution to the crisis in Ukraine will be found, referring to a new round of talks that were about to start between Ukrainian and Russian officials.
He stated that Russia's dialogue with the West must be based on mutual respect and claimed that the NATO alliance is seeking to maintain supremacy and that while Russia has a lot of goodwill, it cannot let anyone undermine its interests and will not allow Ukraine to keep infrastructure that threatens Russia.
Lavrov said that he could not tolerate what Russia believes is a military threat to Russia from Ukraine and said he believes Russia was right about the threat. "The thought of nuclear is constantly spinning in the heads of Western politicians but not in the heads of Russians. I assure you that we will not allow any kind of provocation to unbalance us".
Lavrov said that Russia has information that the United States was worried about losing control over chemical and biological laboratories in Ukraine and has accused Britain of building military bases there, but did not present any evidence regarding Russia's claims on this matter.
Ukraine has accused Russian forces of hitting civilian areas, but Lavrov countered those claims by saying that Russian troops have strict orders to use high-precision weaponry to destroy military infrastructure. There is however, a great deal of video footage coming out from Ukraine that indicates that civilian areas have been hit despite Russia's claims otherwise.
Lavrov has also claimed that Ukraine still has 'Soviet nuclear tech' and that Russia cannot fail to respond to this danger despite there being no credible evidence that Ukraine has nuclear capability at all.
Moscow will take all possible measures to prevent the appearance of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Lavrov stated, also stating that the fact that some European nations host nuclear weapons from the United States is unacceptable to Russia and that it's "time for U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe to be returned home".
He said that the West must not build up military facilities in former Soviet Union countries, but that Russia is ready for joint work with the United States on obtaining strategic stability in the region.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) figures state that over one million Ukrainians have now fled the country of Ukraine since the large-scale invasion by Russia began last week. The UN agency says it's too early to start resettling Ukrainian refugees and estimates that there could be up to 4 million Ukrainian refugees if current trends continue.
The head of Russia's space agency has stated that Russia will be treating any hacking of its satellites as justification for war, after an alleged hack of their systems was claimed by a 'non-state' hacker group on Tuesday according to media reports.
Head of the Russian State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" Dmiry Rogozin denied media reports however that Russian satellite control centers had been hacked during Russia's campaign against Ukraine while at the same time warned against any attempt to hack their systems saying that it would be treated as justification for war.
Interfax quoted Rogozin saying "Off-lining the satellites of any country is actually a casus belli, a cause for war" after the hacker group Network Battalion 65 had claimed responsibility for hacking Russia's satellite systems.
The claim by Network Battalion 65 came out on March 1st, with a Twitter post saying "we won't stop until you stop" and a message saying "The Russian Space Agency sure does love their satellite imaging. Better yet, they sure do love their Vehicle Monitoring System. The WS02 was deleted, credentials were rotated and the server is shut down".
The message continues to read "Network Battalion isn't going to give you the IP, that would be too easy, now wouldn't it? Have a nice Monday fixing your spying tech. Glory to Ukraine. We won't stop until you stop dropping bombs, killing civilians and trying to invade" (we left out the colorful part at the end).
Another message by the hacking group says "Anonymous is not alone. NB65 has officially declared cyber war on Russia as well. You want to invade Ukraine? Good. Face resistance from the entire world" and then "All of us are watching. All of us are fighting".
Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Interior says that Russia attempted to storm two nuclear power plants in Southern Ukraine. Olga Tokariuk, a freelance correspondent in Kyiv says that there are fears of a potential disaster, should they succeed in storming the nuclear plants. She also warns that this is not only a threat to Ukraine, but to all of Europe.