Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that "the third world war would be a devastating nuclear", and that US President Joe Biden "is experienced and knows that there is no alternative to sanctions but world war."
Lavrov added in statements to Al-Jazeera that "Russia has many friends and it cannot be isolated," noting that the West refused to deal with Russia's demands "on the formulation of a new architecture for European security."
Commenting on the US and European sanctions that were applied to his country after it launched the war on Ukraine at dawn last Thursday, Lavrov said, "We were ready for these sanctions, but we did not expect them to target athletes, intellectuals, artists and media people."
The Russian Foreign Minister considered Crimea to be part of Russia and not negotiable.
"It is the Ukrainian people who choose their own power, but it must be representative of all nationalities in Ukraine," he said.
Lavrov expressed his country's readiness for a second round of negotiations, "but the Ukrainian side is procrastinating on American orders," referring to the negotiations that the two sides started on the Belarusian border and the first round of which took place two days ago.
He stressed that the Russian military operation, including the one taking place in the capital Kyiv, aims to disarm Ukraine and prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, adding, "We cannot allow the presence of offensive weapons in Ukraine that threaten our security."