Russia and the US have entered a phase of "hot conflict," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Sputnik radio.
“We are now in the stage of a heated conflict with the United States. We are seeing this state directly involve itself in a hybrid war with Russia in a variety of areas. Some forms of this war are simply unprecedented - they simply did not exist and did not could have existed during the Cold War,” Ryabkov denounced according to RIA Novosti reports.
For his part, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed that the heads of the four Ukrainian regions annexed by Russia will participate today in a meeting of the Russian Security Council chaired by Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
On the agenda will be initiatives to ensure order and security in these regions.
Peskov also indicated that Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko "will certainly exchange views" on Minsk's proposal to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine and start negotiations, during their talks scheduled for today and tomorrow in Moscow.