MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview about the ongoing conflict in Kiev that his country "didn't invade Ukraine, but declared a special military operation because we had no other way of explaining to the West that pulling Ukraine into NATO was a criminal act."

He made the comments to the BBC on Thursday, one of many interactions he has had with the Western media since Russia began its ongoing invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

As the Minister reaffirmed Russia's claim that Nazis existed in Ukraine, he was asked about an official UN report about Yahidne village in Ukraine's Chernihiv region, where "360 residents, including 74 children and five persons with disabilities, were forced to stay for 28 days in the basement of a school by Russian armed forces," and if that was "fighting Nazis?" "It's a big misfortune, but international diplomats, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Secretary-General, and other UN representatives, are being put under pressure by the West," Lavrov told the BBC. They're also frequently utilised to reinforce bogus news spread by the West.

"Russia is not squeaky clean Russia is the country what it is. And we are not ashamed to be ourselves." Regarding the UK-Russia relationship, Lavrov stated that he does not believe "there is even room for manoeuvre any longer."

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