Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia's military was hitting the right targets in Syria and pushing back "terrorists" during an annual foreign policy speech and q&a in Moscow on Tuesday.
The United States has accused Russia of missing Islamic State targets in Syria with one senior US official two weeks ago saying only a third of Russia's air strikes in Syria were targeting Islamic State and its imprecise attacks were forcing the population to flee and fuelling Europe's refugee crisis.
The official told reporters in Brussels that out of the 5,000 air strikes carried out by Russia since it began its air offensive in Syria on Sept. 30, about 70 percent hit rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, rather than supporting the efforts of the US-led coalition.
Rescue workers and rights groups say Russia's bombing in Syria has killed scores of civilians at busy market places and in residential areas. Russia denies this.
The Kremlin launched its air strikes saying it wanted to help Assad, its main Middle East ally, defeat Islamic State and other militant groups.
"The military actions of Russia's air force in response to the request of the Syrian government have drastically altered the situation in the country and have helped to narrow the area controlled by terrorists," he said.
Amnesty International said last month that Moscow's actions had violated humanitarian law. Amnesty estimates at least 200 civilians were killed by Russian air strikes between Sept. 30 and Nov. 29, which Russia denies.
Russia's Defence Ministry has repeatedly denied targeting civilians, saying it takes great care to avoid bombing residential areas.
On Ukraine Lavrov said Kiev was dragging its feet on implementing the Minsk peace plan because it wants to keep in place the Western sanctions imposed on Russia.
Saying the "West understands that today's situation is a dead end," he added Moscow would demand that Kiev adhere to Minsk to the letter:
"So we decided to continue this work (the Ukrainian peace process) in 2016. But the tasks have not changed. They are all enshrined in the Minsk agreements. We will demand their strict implementation in accordance with additional efforts made during the meetings of the Normandy four," he said.
On defence, Russian news agencies on Friday (January 22) cited senior ministry officials as saying that Russia will form four new military divisions this year to strengthen its western and central regions in response to an increase in NATO drills.
Russia's military is undergoing a multi-billion dollar overhaul.
"We are ready for constructive cooperation with our Western partners, including Europe and the United States. We are open to the gradual development of our cooperation with them but only and exclusively on the equal and mutually beneficial basis with the non-interference in the internal affairs of each other and respect for the principal interests of each side," he said.
"So far we see the continuation of an unconstructive and dangerous line of behaviour towards Russia including the enhancement of NATO potential close to our borders and the creation of the European and Asian segments of the global missile defence system of the United States, where the United States involve the European countries and North East Asian countries. We believe that these actions are destabilising and short-sighted," he added.
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