Washington brought relations with Moscow to point of no return, it'll have to reckon with Russia's spheres of influence - Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW. March 8 (Interfax) - The United States has brought relations with Russia to the point of no return with its actions, it will have to reckon with Moscow's interests and spheres of influence, Alexander Darchiyev, director of the North America Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, said.

"It was Washington with its hostile actions and insolent disregard for Russia's demand to provide legally binding security guarantees, including the non-enlargement of NATO, the refusal to deploy attack forces by our borders and the return of the alliance's military potential to the state of 1997, that effectively brought Russian-U.S. relations to the point of no return," Darchiyev told Interfax in an interview.

"The pumping of the regime in Kyiv with Western weapons and the connivance of the U.S. to its reliance on the solution of the Donbas issue by force left us no choice but taking the DPR and the LPR under our protection," he said.

"It is clear that Ukraine, which was plunged into a disaster by its bankrupt rulers, is only a tool for the U.S. in its geopolitical confrontation with Russia. Joseph Biden's pompous statement on February 24, apparently caused by the annoyance that Moscow did not let to trample Donbas and turn the territory of Ukraine into an area of NATO's forward stationing, about 'a complete rupture' of Russian-U.S. relations was very symbolic in this context," he said.

"It seems that Washington will need time to get used to the fact that its hegemony is a thing of the past and it has to reckon with the national interests of Russia, which has its sphere of influence and responsibility," Darchiyev said.