Russia's Ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin said that Russia hasn't started taking the war with Ukraine seriously yet adding that Russia is ready for peace negotiations with Ukraine but only on its terms, in an interview with BBC's Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday.
"Russia hasn't just started yet to act very seriously and Russia is 16 times bigger than Ukraine," Kelin said. "We have enormous resources.
"Russia hasn't just started yet to act very seriously"
Russia's Ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin
"The length of the conflict depends on the efforts in the escalation of the war that is being undertaken by NATO countries, especially by the UK," he added.
He warned that any weapons supply to Ukraine by the West will only result in an escalation in the war. He also claimed that it would be a mistake to believe that Ukraine would prevail in the war,
"We want peace, but on certain conditions, of course," Kelin said when speaking about peace negotiations. "For us, two things are important. That there will be no threat from Ukraine to Russia - this is one thing. And second, that Russians in Ukraine will be treated like all other nations in the world."
"Sooner or later, of course, this escalation may get a new dimension which we do not need and we do not want," he added. "We can make peace tomorrow if the Ukrainian side is prepared to negotiate, but at the moment there are no preconditions for that, I am afraid because the president of Ukraine has prohibited any negotiations."
Comments come after Ukrainian interview with BBC
His comments come after one of the most senior security officials of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, told BBC that Ukraine is ready to launch a counter-offensive against Russian troops.
Danilov, being the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, is part of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's war cabinet.
Danilov didn't give a date as to when this counter-offensive would happen to retake territory from Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces.
When he was asked during an interview whether Ukraine's armed forces were ready, he said: "We are always ready. The same as we were ready to defend our country at any time. And it's not a question of time. We have to understand that the historic opportunity that is given to us - by God - to our country, we cannot lose, so we can truly become an independent, big European country."
"It could happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or in a week," he said. "It would be weird if I were to name dates of the start of that or those events. That cannot be done...We have a very responsible task before our country. And we understand that we have no right to make a mistake."
"We have no days off during this war," he said when dismissing suggestions that the counter-offensive has already started.
Putin ally says Ukraine war could last for decades
A top ally of Putin said that the Ukraine war could last for decades, with long periods of fighting interspersed by truces, according to a report from Russia's RIA news agency on Thursday.
The report stated that former President Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Putin's powerful security council, had spoken during a visit to Vietnam. Medvedev often makes hard-line comments and last month described Ukrainian authorities as an infection.
"This conflict will last a very long time, most likely decades," RIA cited Medvedev.
"As long as there is such a power in place, there will be, say, three years of truce, two years of conflict, and everything will be repeated."