The United States must heed Moscow’s warnings regarding the potential risks of further escalation in the Ukraine conflict, as reported by Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti, citing Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Friday.

Regarding the potential for a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Ryabkov stated that no meeting would occur, as there is “nothing to discuss.”

Additionally, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova emphasized that granting Kyiv the freedom to conduct long-range strikes deep within Russia would fundamentally alter the nature of the conflict in Ukraine.

“We wish to remind the hardliners on both sides of the Atlantic… They are playing with fire and have lost all sense of reality,” she remarked during a briefing. “The scale of the conflict, which originated due to Western actions, risks transforming entirely, potentially leading to perilous consequences for the entire world.”