Russia's Lavrov: Ukraine conflict will not end until West drops plans
defeat Moscow
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[July 12, 2023]
(Reuters) -The armed confrontation in Ukraine will continue until
the West gives up plans to dominate and defeat Moscow, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with an Indonesian newspaper
published on Wednesday.
The goal of the "US-led collective West" is to strengthen its global
hegemony, Lavrov told the Kompas newspaper. Lavrov is due to attend the
East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum in Jakarta this week, as is
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. |
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
speaks during a joint press conference with Oman's Foreign Minister
Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi and the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) Secretary General Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi (both not
pictured), following a meeting of Sergei Lavrov with his counterparts of
the GCC member states, in Moscow, Russia July 10, 2023. Natalia
Kolesnikova/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo |
"Why doesn't the armed confrontation in Ukraine come to an end?
The answer is very simple – it will continue until the West
gives up its plans to preserve its domination and overcome its
obsessive desire to inflict on Russia a strategic defeat at the
hands of its Kiev puppets," according to a transcript of the
interview published on Russia's foreign ministry website.
"For the time being, there are no signs of change in this
position."
Russia waged a full-scale invasion in Ukraine in February 2022,
calling it a "special military operation" to denazify its
neighbour. Kyiv and its allies call the war, now in its 17th
month, an aggression to grab land.
On Wednesday, Russia launched a wave of kamikaze drone attacks
on Kyiv for a second night in row and hours before President
Volodymyr Zelenskiy was due to meet NATO leaders at a summit in
Vilnius.
The West says it wants to help Ukraine win its conflict with
Russia, and Western powers have supplied large amounts of modern
arms and ammunition to Kyiv.
Lavrov also accused Kyiv of ignoring Indonesia's peace plan and
instead promoting its own "package of ultimatums."
Ukraine dismissed the Indonesian plan, a multi-point formula
which had included a call for the establishment of a
demilitarised zone, reiterating Kyiv's position that Russia
should withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
Commenting on the internal strife in Myanmar since a military
coup in 2021, Lavrov urged the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) to resolve issues with "close cooperation" with
the junta and without interfering in Myanmar's domestic affairs.
ASEAN foreign ministers meeting on Tuesday were expected to
address the growing violence in Myanmar. The regional bloc has
barred the junta from its summits for failing to implement an
agreed peace plan.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Ananda Teresia in
Jakarta; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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