RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the West of becoming directly involved in the Ukraine war by supplying the country with weapons and training its soldiers.
‘You shouldn’t say that the US and NATO aren’t taking part in this war. You are directly participating in it,’ Lavrov said during a press briefing on Thursday. ‘And not just by providing weapons but also by training personnel. You are training their military on your territory, on the territories of Britain, Germany, Italy and other countries.’
Lavrov accused the US and its NATO allies of trampling on international law while trying to isolate and destroy Russia.
He said the ongoing Russian strikes were intended to weaken Ukraine’s military potential and derail the shipments of Western weapons.
The foreign minister said Russian attacks were intended to ‘knock out energy facilities that allow you to keep pumping deadly weapons into Ukraine in order to kill the Russians’. Lavrov said Moscow remains open for talks on ending the conflict.
‘We never asked for talks but always said that we are ready to listen to those who are interested in a negotiated settlement.’
Commenting on Russia’s decision to postpone a round of nuclear arms control talks with the United States that was scheduled for this week, Lavrov said, ‘It’s impossible to discuss strategic stability nowadays while ignoring everything that is happening in Ukraine.’
‘The goal has been announced to defeat Russia on the battlefield or even destroy Russia,’ he said. ‘How can the goal of defeating Russia not bear significance for strategic stability, considering that they want to destroy a key strategic stability actor?
‘The infrastructure that is targeted by those attacks is used to ensure the combat potential of the Ukrainian armed forces and the nationalist battalions,’ Lavrov said.
Lavrov also accused the West of missing the chance to make the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) a real bridge with Russia after the Cold War.
At a news conference on Thursday, Lavrov said the ‘reckless enlargement’ of NATO had devalued the basic principles of the OSCE, which currently has 57 member states, including NATO countries and allies of Moscow. ‘The West is doing exactly what the OSCE was created to counter – it is creating dividing lines.’
Poland is hosting the 2022 ministerial conference as it currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the OSCE.
Lavrov said Russia’s ‘Polish neighbours have been diligently digging the grave for this Organisation all year, destroying the remnants of the culture of consensus.’
The OSCE was founded in 1975 – at the height of the Cold War – to foster relations between the Western and Eastern blocs.
Also on Thursday, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov strongly denounced the European Union’s calls to hold a war crimes tribunal over Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, saying any such tribunal would be illegitimate and unacceptable to Moscow. ‘As for attempts to establish some kind of tribunal: they will have no legitimacy, will not be accepted by us and we will condemn them.’
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday said the EU would try to set up a specialised court to investigate and prosecute possible war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
The Kremlin vows to bring to justice the alleged executioners of its soldiers who surrendered to Ukrainian forces.
Separately, speaking at the beginning of the two-day ministerial conference in the central Polish city of Lodz on Thursday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he planned to discuss with his counterparts any available legal means to ensure Russia would pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
He recalled that the EU has frozen Russian assets worth nearly 20 billion euros since the war began in late February.
Western sanctions have also led to the freezing of 300 billion euros of the Central Bank of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves around the world. ‘These reserves are blocked. But from being blocked to being seized is a strong difference.’
‘And there are legal procedures that have to be studied. But our proposal is on the table … Russia has to pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine.’
Russia says the operation in Ukraine has been in order to defend the pro-Russia population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Lugansk and Donetsk against alleged persecution by Kiev. Ever since the war began, Kiev’s allies, led by the United States and Britain, have been supplying Ukraine with weapons, a step that Russia says would prolong the conflict.
- Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Baqeri, has underscored the high maritime security of the Persian Gulf region, saying there has been a significant decrease in the presence of extra-regional fleets in the strategic area as a result.
‘The significant reduction of extra-regional fleets in the Persian Gulf indicates the lasting security that the Islamic Republic of Iran has established in the region,’ Bagheri said in an interview with Iran’s official news agency IRNA on Sunday, on the sidelines of a visit to an airbase in the southern city of Bushehr.
‘The fully-established security in the region shows the accountability of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has been ensured with round-the-clock aerial and naval patrols.’
The chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces pointed to the outcomes of the aforementioned security for residents in the Persian Gulf region, saying, ‘Under the ensured security in the Persian Gulf, we are witnessing the daily activities of people and coastal residents in the highly strategic province of Bushehr in the field of maritime trade and fishing, as well as activities in the field of oil and gas.’
Bagheri also announced the full readiness and high capability of the military and law enforcement units, including the Army, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and the Defence Ministry, to protect the country’s borders.
The Iranian military and political officials have on numerous occasions said Iran will never compromise on defending the country’s interests and resources, warning that the security of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz is a ‘red line’.
They said the security of the Persian Gulf region should be established by regional countries, adding that there is no need for the presence of foreign forces in the international waterway.
Iranian officials have also described Israel’s destabilising activities as the main source of insecurity in the region, warning regional countries about the perils of allowing Tel Aviv to establish a foothold in the region.
- Thousands of Italians have held protests against the high cost of living and energy prices, and called for the suspension of the shipment of weapons and money to Ukraine.
The protests, organised by the USB (Unione Sindacale di Base) union with the support of political parties and different social organisations, were held in the capital city of Rome on Saturday.
The protesters were carrying placards saying, ‘Put down the weapons, raise the wages!’
‘We are on the streets to tell Meloni and her government, which is a continuation of the Draghi government and the requests of the European Union, that it changes its route or the country will be blocked more and more to avoid a massacre for the workers and of the social mass,’ Pierpaolo, a USB union member said.
‘In previous days, the government has once again allocated money for the war in Ukraine, instead of putting money into social spending, health, education and pensions. We ask that it is necessary to end the war. It is necessary to stop financing Ukraine and it is necessary to end the sanctions against Russia,’ he added.
From the beginning of the Ukraine war, former Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s administration introduced measures that made it possible to send weapons to Kiev without seeking parliamentary authorisation for each shipment.
Last week, Italy’s ruling rightist parties withdrew an amendment that would allow the government to continue sending weapons to Ukraine throughout 2023.
Luigi de Magistris, the USB spokesman who took part in the demonstration, said the protest is the march of unions based in Rome against the policies of the Meloni government and the neoliberal powers.
The Italian parliament has passed a resolution authorising the government to continue to help Ukraine, including via military aid, throughout 2023.
Support for Ukraine has been a contentious issue within the ruling coalition with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni positioning herself as a staunch supporter of Kiev. Italy is supporting Ukraine amid an economic crisis, a cold winter expected in the country and the rampant poverty.
Moreover, there seems to be an open wedge between parliament and the Italian people. The latest polls show that more than half of Italians advocate peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and only a third are okay with their country supplying weapons to Kiev.
