Cargo with weapons transferred to Ukraine to become legitimate targets of Russian troops - Lavrov

MOSCOW. March 18 (Interfax) - Any cargos moving into the territory of Ukraine which Russia would consider military ones will become legitimate targets for Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"We clearly said that any cargo moving into the Ukrainian territory which we would believe is carrying weapons would be fair game. This is clear because we are implementing the operation the goal of which is to remove any threat to the Russian Federation coming from the Ukrainian soil," Lavrov said in an English-language interview with the RT television channel.

"They also speak about missile defense. For obvious reasons, for pragmatic reasons they think of asking NATO members who possess Soviet air defense systems to share these with them," he said.

"I would like to remind the countries who might be playing with this idea that the Soviet- and Russian-made systems of missile defense or any other purpose are there on the basis of intergovernmental agreements had contracts which include the end-user certificate," the minister said.

"And the end-user certificate doesn't allow for that, to send weapons to any third country without our consent. This is a legal obligation," Lavrov said, adding that Russia would not allow such risks to materialize.