Russia’s Foreign Minister has told the United Nations Security Council that a key factor impeding efforts towards a peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis is continued military support by Western nations to the Kyiv Government.
Sergei Lavrov also dismissed notions that if Russia were to withdraw its forces from Ukraine and stop fighting the war with Ukraine would end.
As the war on Ukraine’s eastern front grinds on without any clear advantage to either side, Russia is blaming Western support of its adversary as a key impediment towards a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
“Despite the fact that it is obviously in agony and it is incapable of attaining the goals set to itself, namely to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia or, as has been said recently, to at least weaken my country. The reality is such that despite a complete failure of UAF on the battlefield, the Western patrons of the Kyiv regime continue pushing them – they’re maniacal in this – they could continue pushing them towards continuing with a senseless military confrontation,” says Sergei Lavrov.
The United States remains the largest military donor to Ukraine, having contributed approximately 44 billion dollars since February 2022 – part of some 155 billion dollars in Western military support to date.
The White House is currently battling a Republican-led House of Representatives to approve an additional 61 billion dollars earmarked for Ukraine, 44 billion of that intended for the provision of defence equipment in 2024 alone while European Union member states will meet in Brussels in early February to consider billions of dollars in new aid to Ukraine.
Lavrov argued that asking Russia to stop fighting was a non-starter.
“We have heard many times, but probably here today as well from our Western colleagues, their statement disingenuous, one according to which that if Russia stops fighting, the war will end. But if Ukraine will stop fighting, that Ukraine will end. The higher echelons of the United States went even as so far as to say that Russia would attack Poland, the Baltic states and Finland after that. Those are lots of things that you can think up if you want to get money out of Congress and European parliaments. When you convince them of the need to continue supporting Ukraine to the detriment of their nationals.”
Ukraine was joined by almost 50 European and other Western nations in accusing Russia of hypocrisy including for accepting weapons supplies from countries like Iran and the DPRK, in violation of Security Council resolutions that prohibit such transfers. Ukraine’s Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya read the joint statement.
“We underscore the hypocrisy of the Russian Federation, calling yet another UN security meeting to criticize lawful arms transfers to Ukraine that are done in support of Ukraine’s inherent right of self-defence, as reflected in Article 51 of the UN charter. This meeting today is another attempt by the Russian Federation to distract from its war of aggression against Ukraine and it is the intensified campaign of systematic airstrikes, killing civilians and destroying critical infrastructure. We reiterate our resolute condemnation of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine, which constitutes a manifest violation of the UN Charter.”
The United States Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood accused Russia of blatant disinformation and cynicism of the highest order.
“It bears repeating there are hundreds of thousands of Russian troops in Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory. There is not a single Ukrainian soldier on Russian soil. The Russian representative’s accusations would sound more credible if his government respected international law, the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions. The UN Secretary General has reiterated on many occasions that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of the charter and international law. No amount of conspiracy theories and baseless accusations erase the fact that Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity started this war.”
Lavrov has also poured cold water on Ukraine-initiated peace plans and formulas, warning Western nations that this was a “road to nowhere” – as this almost two-year conflict joins the long list of protracted ones on the Security Council’s ever-sprawling agenda.
