Ryabkov said that the hybrid war against Russia is taking on larger forms

The hybrid war against Russia is acquiring more and more large-scale and “sophisticated” forms, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Ryabkov said at the site of the Valdai International Discussion Club, writes TASS.

“Now is the time when, in fact, the hybrid war is acquiring ever larger and more sophisticated forms, this war is going on with the United States and the group of countries led by them against the Russian Federation recklessly, without calculating the consequences of what could happen,” the diplomat said, commenting Senator Lindsey Graham’s call to shoot down Russian aircraft approaching US targets over international waters.

Also, by words Ryabkov, the probability of a nuclear conflict today has become the highest in recent decades. Russia, the diplomat said, remains committed to the idea that the world should be safe and free from the nuclear threat.

At the same time, Moscow and Washington now have no common ground on the subject of the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START), he added. According to the diplomat, Russia will be able to return to discussions with the United States on returning to START only after Washington changes its hostile policy in general.

In early February, the Russian Foreign Ministry, commenting on the situation around START, declaredthat US actions against Russia could lead to a direct military clash between the two powers. “The United States, in fact, unleashed an all-out hybrid war against Russia, which is fraught with a real danger of a direct military clash between the two nuclear powers,” the ministry said in a statement.

At the end of January, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declaredthat the West is waging a war against Russia not a hybrid one, but almost a real one. The minister also pointed out that Western leaders involved in the signing of the Minsk agreements admitted that the agreements were only aimed at gaining time, during which Ukraine continued to be pumped with weapons in order to project a threat against Kiev against Russia. In September 2022 Lavrov pointed outthat the hybrid war unleashed by the West against Russia has acquired an “unprecedented character”.