NATO and EU waging war on Russia – Lavrov
The Ukrainian crisis was orchestrated by the West as a war on Russia, waged by Kiev, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
The top diplomat made the remarks on Thursday during a G20 ministerial meeting held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
The refusal to follow the UN Charter, which is a manifestation of “neo-colonial ambitions,” prompts regional wars and raises global tension, Lavrov stated, invoking decades-long unresolved conflicts in Africa and elsewhere.
“Another clear example is the Western-provoked crisis in Ukraine, through which NATO and the European Union want to declare – have already declared – an actual war on my country and are directly participating in it,” the top diplomat added.
Moscow has consistently characterized the Ukraine conflict as a Western proxy war against Russia, in which Kiev’s forces are being used as “cannon fodder.” Russia has repeatedly condemned military aid to Kiev, accusing the West and the EU in particular of militarization and belligerent rhetoric.
Russian officials have also argued that the West has been escalating tensions in the region for many years, disregarding Moscow’s longstanding concerns over NATO’s eastward expansion. They point to the military bloc’s growing cooperation with Ukraine, which accelerated after the 2014 Maidan coup in Kiev and the ensuing conflict in the then-Ukrainian Donbass.
