Ukraine should not count on military assistance from the United States, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview.
“You said that there is no point in relying on military assistance from the US. Everyone always knew that. If someone had an illusion that such help would come, well, such ‘advisers’ would be worthless in any government, including the government of [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy,” Lavrov told Sputnik.
Russia has repeatedly warned against weapons supplies to Ukraine since this will only lead to an escalation of the conflict in Donbas.
The West indulges in wishful thinking when it claims that Russia “backed down” by finishing military exercises in the western part of the country, close to the border with Ukraine, Lavrov said.
“You remember how they cried that Russia is pulling its troops closer to the border with Ukraine … And then, when the exercises ended and we made a relevant announcement, we heard spiteful exclamations from there, from the Western side, like, look, Russia was forced to back down, Russia retreated. You know, there is such an expression, a self-fulfilling prophecy, but this is about something else, this is wishful thinking.”
“It shows that the West wants to take advantage of this, first of all, to tout its decisive word and decisive place in modern international relations. This is sad,” Lavrov continued.
Minsk Pact
Changing the sequence of implementation of the set of measures on Donbas crisis settlement as laid down in the Minsk agreements will lead to a massacre in Ukraine’s east, Lavrov stated.
According to the Russian diplomat, the West keeps trying to convince Russia of the need to “soften” the Minsk agreements or change the sequence of the implementation of the set of measures.
“[Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy [says]: I do not like it, well, it should be the other way around, first we will take full control of this territory, including the border with Russia, and then we will deal with elections, the pardon, the special status of these territories … Obviously, if they did this, if someone allowed them to do this, there would be a massacre there in fact,” Lavrov said.
The Russian foreign minister slammed Kiev’s attempts to promote the need to “reaffirm” the ceasefire in Donbas. “A couple of weeks ago, the Ukrainian leadership decided it is necessary to revive the ceasefire topic again. This is shameful and reproachful,” Lavrov said.
