On Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that the goal of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is to destroy Russia.

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"It is no secret to anyone that the goal of the U.S. and its NATO allies is victory over Russia on the battlefield as a mechanism to significantly weaken or even destroy our country," he said, adding that Russia's opponents "are willing to do a lot" to achieve that goal.

Lavrov noted that the actions of the "collective West" and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirm the "global character of the Ukrainian crisis."

He also pointed out that the main beneficiary of the conflict is the U.S., which is trying to obtain the maximum economic and strategic-military advantage.

"Washington is fulfilling an important geopolitical task: disrupting the traditional ties between Russia and Europe and subjecting its European satellites to even greater subservience," he stressed.

Lavrov also pointed out that the Western policy is extremely dangerous and fraught with risk of a direct armed clash between nuclear powers. "Irresponsible speculation" that Russia is about to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine is unceasingly unfolding in the West.

"We are talking about something completely different: the West's policy of comprehensive containment of our country is extremely dangerous. It carries the risk of sliding into a direct armed clash of nuclear powers," he said.

Moscow has repeated over and over again that there can be no winners in a nuclear war, which must never be unleashed, Lavrov added, noting that Western politicians are sharpening their rhetoric on the issue of a nuclear war and it is them who should be asked whether this topic will continue in 2023.