The West, by delivering increasingly lethal and long-range systems to the Kiev regime, is raising the stakes in the Ukrainian conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an exclusive interview with TASS on the results of 2023, Paralel.Az reports.

"Despite the failure of the Ukrainian army’s ‘counteroffensive,’ the West continues flooding the Kiev regime with arms, raising the stakes by using increasingly lethal and long-range systems in the Ukrainian conflict. The deliveries of NATO weapons are underway, including cluster munitions and depleted uranium shells," the Russian foreign minister noted.

According to Lavrov, tragic events in the Middle East have temporarily pushed the Ukrainian crisis off the front pages of Western media outlets. "However, for the majority of unfriendly governments, ‘strategically defeating Russia on the battlefield’ is still a priority. Neither Washington, nor Brussels reject providing aid to the Kiev regime, knowing that it is doomed without it. They are still vitally interested in containing Russia by sacrificing Ukrainians," the top Russian diplomat stressed.

Lavrov noted that the Ramstein format continues to function where representatives from more than 50 countries are monthly discussing the Kiev regime’s requests for military hardware and munitions.