“Russia has an unblemished reputation and is not ashamed”, the Russian foreign minister told a BBC correspondent in Moscow.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has not given many interviews since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th. In an interview with the BBC, he reiterated the Kremlin's official line that there are Nazis in Ukraine and that the goal is to "denazify" the country.

Speaking to Steven Rosenberg, Lavrov said Russia had not invaded Ukraine but had declared a “special military operation” because there was no other way to explain to the West that bringing Ukraine into NATO was a criminal act.

Asked by reporters if he considered "denazification" what happened in the village of Yahidne, where 360 ​​residents, 74 of them children and 5 disabled, were forced by Russians to stay in the basement of a local school for 28 days without water and toilets and 10 of elderly had died, Lavrov answered:

"It is unfortunate that foreign diplomats, including the UN Human Rights Agency, the UN Secretary-General and other representatives, have come under pressure from the West and have often been used to exaggerate fake news in the West."

On the issue of severely deteriorating British-Russian relations, the Russian foreign minister said he did not see much room for improvement because Boris Johnson and Liz Truss had openly stated that they should defeat Russia and bring it to its knees. "Come on, do it!" Lavrov added.

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