Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that Western countries have effectively gone to war with Moscow by providing military support to Ukraine.
Sergei Lavrov told a news conference at the United Nations (UN):
“You can call it anything you want, but they are fighting with us, they are straight-up fighting with us. We call it a hybrid war but that doesn’t change things.”
US President Joe Biden has repeatedly said that the USA has no plans to engage in a direct military conflict with Russia and will not send its troops there. The Washington administration also noted that it was not involved in the organisation of the Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
Refuting these statements by Biden, Lavrov noted that the West had repeatedly sent financial and military aid to Ukraine, for example, the USA had allocated billions of dollars for military equipment, US and UK intelligence support and the presence of Western military advisers in Ukraine.
According to Lavrov, westerners are “de facto fighting against us, using the hands and bodies of Ukrainians.” He claimed:
“I think everybody present here who pays at least some attention to the situation in Ukraine knows very well that Americans, Britons and others are fighting, first of all, through providing more and more weapons.”
The Russian minister stressed that Western mercenaries were present in Ukraine. A number of Western countries, including the USA, do not recommend their citizens to go to Ukraine to take part in the war, but all those who want to do so get there on their own.
Lavrov attended the annual UN General Assembly, where all eyes were on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian president flew to New York to seek new military support from Western partners.
On Wednesday, Zelensky spoke at a special session of the Security Council, in which he demanded that Russia be stripped of its veto right. Lavrov came after the Ukrainian president’s speech. Lavrov said:
“I watched it on TV. He seemed rather grim. But I have my own affairs to attend to. We all knew what he was going to say, so why waste time?”
Zelensky presented his 10-point plan to end hostilities, which envisages Russia’s complete withdrawal from Ukraine, including Crimea, and the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute war crimes.
Lavrov criticised Zelensky’s plan and condemned the USA and the EU for supporting it. He said:
“It is not realistic and everybody understands this, but at the same time they say this is the only basis for negotiations. We draw our conclusion that nobody wants to seriously show an understanding of what is happening. On ending the conflict under these circumstances, if they say it’s on the battlefield, then fine, it’ll be on the battlefield”.
