Russia has received an official message from the United States through diplomatic channels that Washington does not plan and does not want to directly fight Moscow, or send its military specialists to work with the Patriot anti-aircraft systems transferred to Ukraine. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an interview given to a program on the Russian First Channel.

"Now we asked the Americans—through the channels that are still maintained at our embassy—whether the decision to transfer the Patriot battery means, given the complexity of its use, that there will be American specialists [in Ukraine]. They have explained to us quite thoroughly that this is not planned precisely because the Americans do not want to and will not fight against Russia directly," Lenta quotes Lavrov as saying.

Also, the Russian FM noted that, according to the US data, the Patriot will be launched within a few months, until the Ukrainian military masters this technology.