Brussels is aiming to supply Kiev with longer-range weapons as it can’t defeat Moscow using its current methods, the foreign minister said
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov © Grigory Sysoev; RIA Novosti
The EU is a direct participant in the Ukraine conflict and is aiming to supply Kiev with weapons capable of striking at the “heart” of Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
Moscow has received information suggesting that the EU’s foreign policy service believes Kiev is incapable of defeating Russia using its current methods, Lavrov stated. Brussels has therefore proposed to send even longer-range weapons to Ukrainian forces “so that they reach the heart of Russia, as the EU describes it, and thereby sow confusion and panic and undermine the trust of the people,” he claimed.
“Is this not direct participation in the war? Of course it is,” Lavrov said at an event marking the 10th anniversary of the Western-backed coup in Kiev.
The diplomat argued that despite Kiev’s backers insisting they are “only arming Ukraine,” everyone understands that “this is a lie” and that Western instructors are helping the Ukrainian command select targets for attacks. “We are 100% sure of this,” Lavrov insisted.
“In war, the main thing is strategies, and strategies are not located in Kiev, but far away,” the foreign minister added.
Lavrov suggested that the West has effectively declared war on Moscow by using Kiev to “contain Russia” and inflict a “strategic defeat” to prevent it from playing a role on the world stage.
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In doing so, the West has turned Ukraine, which inherited immense industrial potential from the Soviet Union, into “the poorest state in Europe, into a dying territory, without exaggeration,” the diplomat claimed. The Ukrainian government has meanwhile become “a universally recognized international beggar,” he added.
Nevertheless, Lavrov said he believed that Russia’s relations with the West will eventually be restored, although the timing is not up to Moscow. “This is their problem,” the minister stated, recalling Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent comment to Tucker Carlson that Moscow has already made “many concessions” and “gestures of goodwill” and has reached its limit in this respect.
Earlier this week, Lavrov also suggested that the West was not interested in offering a realistic diplomatic solution to the Ukraine conflict because the US and its allies remain committed to waging a hybrid war against any countries that prioritize their national interests.
