MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. The Kiev regime is intensifying its terror attacks, but the Russian armed forces will respond proportionately to the emerging threats, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"As far as we can see, despite Washington’s assurances, Kiev remains unresponsive to the understanding that was reached at the Russian-American summit in Anchorage in 2025 regarding the first steps toward peace," she told the Izvestia daily.

"The Kiev regime is not only demonstrating a complete inability to negotiate but is also stepping up terrorist attacks against our civilian population and civilian infrastructure. As long as this situation persists, the Russian armed forces will respond proportionately to emerging threats and continue the special military operation aimed at achieving the objectives set by President Vladimir Putin," she added.

According to Zakharova, it is better to negotiate with Russia than to later tally damage caused by short-sighted Russophobic policies. "Escalation is not our choice. But we understand that much depends on the Kiev regime and its Western sponsors’ actual, not declarative, readiness to accept the realities and drop the harmful and dangerous illusion of dealing a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia on the battlefield," she stressed.