💬 Extract from the briefing by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Moscow, January 15, 2026

The Ukraine crisis

• The neo-Nazi Kiev regime keeps manifesting its terrorist nature and becoming ever more dehumanised. It may appear to be off the charts as is, but they can clearly sink even lower.

• On January 1-12, at least 152 Russian civilians came under Ukrainian shelling attacks and UAV strikes, of whom 45, including three children, died and 107, among them eight minors, were wounded. This is how the Kiev regime truly approaches the children’s issue. I will provide some evidence of their atrocities.

• After a failed attempt to use drones to attack the residence of the President of Russia in Novgorod Region on the night of December 28-29, 2025, the Zelensky regime decided to take it out on our country’s civilians. In the first minutes of 2026, in a premeditated attack, the armed forces of Ukraine used UAVs to hit a café and a hotel complex in the village of Khorly, Kherson Region, where families with children, a crowd of about 100 people, had come together to ring in the New Year. Twenty-nine people, including two children, were killed and 31 people, including five children, were wounded. The Foreign Ministry provided an assessment of this barbaric atrocity by Ukrainian neo-Nazis on January 1.

• In this context, we would like to bring to your attention the reports that the drones used by Bandera thugs this time were assembled from components manufactured by the German concern Rheinmetall. I strongly encourage the journalists to ask the German Foreign Ministry, German civil society organisations and, possibly, the German Union of Journalists, what they think about these reports.

• The lives of Russian women and children are once again on the conscience of Berlin, which engages in such supplies, as well as of all the “sympathising” Euro-Atlantic countries that supply weapons to the Bandera regime and gloss over its crimes acting as their accomplices. (...)

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#Outcomes2025

🎙 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's statement during his annual news conference on the Russian diplomacy outcomes in 2025 (January 20, 2026)

💬 Sergey Lavrov: The events of the first twenty days of 2026 have surpassed everything in terms of intensity that 2025 left behind.

We have witnessed unprecedented events – a blatant armed invasion by the US of Venezuela, resulting in dozens killed and wounded, as well as the seizure and forcible removal of the legitimate President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro together with his spouse. At the same time, we are observing threats directed at Cuba and other countries of the Latin American and Caribbean region.

Of deep concern are the overt and openly declared attempts by external forces to destabilize the political situation in Iran. In particular, one such “political figure” of our time – the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas – recently stated that, by supporting protests, the international community, apparently meaning the EU, is seeking regime change in that country.

I will not even dwell on the aspiration of most Western countries to continue using the Kiev regime for armed confrontation with Russia. The goal of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on us is voiced less frequently now, but by all indications it remains present in the minds and plans of, above all, European leaders.

🇷🇺 Russia will defend its interests consistently – without encroaching on anyone’s legitimate rights, yet without allowing our own legitimate rights to be treated arbitrarily.

As for the theses used by the West with regard to our country in 2025, the “isolation” of Russia – as is obvious to everyone – did not happen, no matter how insistently our ill-wishers spoke of it.

❗️ Our position on Ukraine is that it is necessary to eliminate the root causes of this crisis, which the West for many years deliberately created in order to turn this country into a threat to our security, using it as a bulwark against Russia directly on our borders.

A major event in 2025 was the celebration marking the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War – the Parade on Red Square and the large number of foreign guests. We value everyone who personally took part in these celebrations or sent a special delegation.

👉 We are interested in contributing to de-escalation in all the hotspots referred to – be it Venezuela, and I would especially highlight the situation around Iran, which must be resolved on the basis of respect and Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

We are convinced that, for a long-term settlement in the Middle East, it is finally necessary to implement the UN decision on the establishment of a Palestinian State. This criterion fully retains its relevance in light of the widely discussed Donald Trump's initiative to establish a “Peace Council”.