MOSCOW (TASS/ RIA Novosti) – Russia has not yet exhausted its arsenal of weapons in the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday.
“For reasons that are obvious to all sensible people, Russia has not yet used its entire arsenal of weapons. Nor has it hit all possible enemy targets in localities. <…> Everything in its time,” Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel.
Today, Russia is building an equal world order for the future and is fighting alone against the West, while protecting its citizens and returning its lands, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman said.
“[I’d like] to reiterate that it is Russia who is protecting its citizens. And that it is this country who has been returning and has already retuned Russian lands, not the other way Around. And it will continue returning its lands,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that the West, led by the United States, was “attacking Russia almost without restrictions”, but Moscow was showing resistance.
“Russia is not an ordinary state, it is a powerful state. Of course, the West, led by the U.S., attacks Russia almost without restrictions. In the face of all this, Russia, of course, is resisting. We are also trying to figure out how we can open a corridor for peace from here... We believe that the best way to do this could be from dialogue to peace”, Erdogan told reporters.
In February, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk requested help to defend them against attacks by Ukrainian troops.
The U.S. and its allies have imposed comprehensive sanctions against Russia and have supplied weapons to Ukraine to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.
In another development, Russia has banned as many as 200 American nationals from entering the country in reaction to the sanctions that Washington has imposed on Moscow over the latter’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
The Russian foreign ministry announced the entry bans on Friday. It identified some of the affected individuals as a sister and two brothers of U.S. President Joe Biden and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre as well as U.S. senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
Others included heads of companies and pundits such as U.S. writer and Russia expert Anne Applebaum, besides Matthew Kaminski, editor-in-chief of the American news and analysis website Politico and Paul Pelosi, husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The individuals, the ministry said, had been “involved in the promotion of the Russophobic campaign and support for the regime in Kiev.”
Washington and its Western allies have brought Russia under a litany of punitive measures over the February-present military campaign in neighboring Ukraine.