Russia says open to possible Ukraine war talks

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the United States and NATO of playing a direct and dangerous role in the Ukraine war and said Washington had turned Kiev into an existential threat to Moscow that could not be ignored.

Russia’s top diplomat, speaking on Thursday at his annual Moscow news conference, also accused the United States and NATO of seeking to escalate tensions in the South China Sea and of seeking to subvert any regional bodies designed to promote dialogue, such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

And he championed a Russian campaign that used air strikes, drones and missiles to destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure, attacks Kiev and the West have called war crimes.

“We have disabled the power facilities (in Ukraine) that allow you (the West) to launch lethal weapons into Ukraine to kill Russians,” Lavrov said.

“So don’t say the US and NATO are not participating in this war – you are participating directly. Including not only supplying weapons, but also training personnel – you train (Ukrainian) military on your territory,” he added.

Lavrov’s stance is rejected by the West, which says Moscow, which invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, is the belligerent. Western powers say they are arming and training Kiev to help it recapture its own land and that Ukraine has no territorial projects on Russian land.

Russia, which dominated Ukraine before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, calls its intervention in its neighbor “a special military operation” to safeguard Moscow’s security.

Lavrov delivered his anti-Western speech as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine moved into its 10th month, with fierce fighting in the east and authorities in parts of Ukraine still struggling to restore electricity knocked out by Russian attacks.

Lavrov accused the West of trying to use the conflict to destroy Russia. “Talking about the West’s interest in some kind of peaceful settlement doesn’t impress us,” he said.

“The West has publicly announced that it does not just want Russia to be defeated on the battlefield. Said Russia should be totally destroyed as a player. And some are even holding special conferences speculating about how many parts to divide Russia into and who will lead which part.”

His comments appear to be a reference to the fact that some Western politicians have said they want to ensure that Russia does not pose a threat to neighboring countries in the future, and to remarks by some Ukrainian politicians who have speculated how long Russia can hold together as a country. .

Negotiations

While Lavrov devoted most of the event to criticism of the West, he made it clear that Russia is open to the possibility of negotiations, both with Ukraine and the United States.

Russia is ready to listen to anyone who wants to talk, he said.

“He never shied away from possible contacts between the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and he was willing to receive the German and French leaders when they wanted to discuss Ukraine,” he added.

Ukraine has said it will only be ready to hold talks once Russia withdraws from its territory, including Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Kiev said Russia would only use the talks as a chance to buy time and rebuild its armed forces.

Lavrov said this was “absurd” and complained about what he called a “naive” American expectation that Russia would continue nuclear stability talks at a time when he said the West was using Ukraine to destroy Russia. Moscow pulled out of talks scheduled for this week on the new START nuclear treaty between the two countries.

“For now we are not hearing any significant ideas,” Lavrov said. “(But) if there are proposals from the president (Biden) and other members of his government, we will never avoid contacts.”