In South Africa on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the conflict in Ukraine is no longer a “hybrid war” between Russia and the West but is turning into a “real war.”
At a press conference with his South African counterpart, Lavrov said the Western had been preparing a “war” against Russia for a long time. He claimed the goal was “to destroy everything Russian, from language to culture, that has been in Ukraine for centuries and to prohibit people from speaking their mother tongue.”