MOSCOW, July 29. /TASS/. The West is waging war against Russia through Ukraine with varying degrees of ferocity, with some countries playing big roles and others smaller ones, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with TASS Director General Andrey Kondrashov.

"They thought they had us under control. And when President [Vladimir] Putin came to power, he was completely open to an equal strategic partnership with the West," the top diplomat recalled, responding to a remark about the West's behavior prior to 2007 and Putin's Munich speech.

"The fact that our former allies, namely the Anglo-Saxons, are now, with varying degrees of ferocity – London more so and the US slightly less – are waging war against us through Ukraine with varying degrees of ferocity, flooding it with advanced weapons and announcing they will produce new lethal and high-tech anti-missile systems specifically for Ukraine – simply put, this has never happened before," Lavrov emphasized. "We launched the special military operation at a time when society was generally calm and satisfied with its standard of living. The fact that this did not suit the West is also a fact. They did not want society to be calm. They wanted to incite society against the government and were preparing provocations," the foreign minister stressed.