Sergei Lavrov accuses the West of "acting dangerously" by supplying weapons to Ukraine, saying that this amounts to a breach of "all of their so-called principles and values"

Asked about how the war is developing from Russia's perspective, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that it was a "special operation" and it is "proceeding to plan overall".

Lavrov accused the West of "acting dangerously" by supplying weapons to Ukraine, saying that this amounts to a breach of "all of their so-called principles and values".

He claimed that "new facts" had been uncovered in the "liberated territories" - that is the two Russian-held regions in eastern Ukraine - that attacks had been prepared against these areas for months.

According to him, the Pentagon is using Ukrainian territory to develop pathogens that could be used to create biological weapons - a claim the US has called "preposterous".

In addition, he repeated Russian claims that "civilians are being used as hostages" by what he described as "so-called territorial defence forces". They are being used "as human shields", he noted, alleging that Russia was continuing to operate humanitarian corridors for civilians.