Moscow, Russia - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Tucker Carlson that he hoped the US took "seriously" Moscow's recent use of a hypersonic missile in Ukraine.

Washington S and its allies "must understand that we would be ready to use any means not to allow them to succeed in what they call strategic defeat of Russia," Lavrov said in an interview with Carlson.

Two weeks ago, Russia fired its new Oreshnik hypersonic missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in an escalation of the almost three-year war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has since threatened to use the weapon on Kyiv in response to Ukraine's strikes on Russia's territory using US-supplied weapons.

Russia North Korea's Kim Jong Un and Russian defense minister agree to boost military ties

"We are sending signals and we hope that the last one, a couple of weeks ago, the signal with the new weapons system called Oreshnik... was taken seriously," Lavrov said.

While he insisted that Russia does not want to escalate the situation and wants to "avoid any misunderstanding" with Washington and its partners, Lavrov warned that "we will send additional messages if they don't draw necessary conclusions."

Putin said the Oreshnik missile flies at 10 times the speed of sound and cannot be intercepted by air defenses.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the strike "the latest bout of Russian madness" and appealed for updated air-defense systems to meet the new threat.

n the wide-ranging interview, Lavrov accused the US of attempting to bully Russia and others on the international stage.

On Ukraine, he said Moscow was "ready for any eventuality, but we strongly prefer peaceful solution through negotiations on the basis of respecting legitimate security interests of Russia."

Describing what such a peace deal could look like, the top Russian diplomat said, among other demands, Kyiv would have to accept Russia's claim of control over the regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, and Zaporizhzhia.

Russia Here's what North Korea reportedly got from Russia in return for sending troops into Ukraine war

"They are now part of the Russian Federation according to the constitution and this is a reality," he said.

He accused President Joe Biden's administration of escalating the conflict in Ukraine "to leave a legacy to the Trump administration as bad as they can."

Lavrov described President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office in January and has vowed to swiftly end the war, as a "strong person."

"I think he's a very strong person, a person who wants results, who doesn't like procrastination on anything," he said.