NATO countries are now de facto fighting on the side of Kiev and have become “deeply” drawn into the Ukrainian conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.
“Once again, we drew attention to the subversive line of the NATO countries, which have been drawn into the conflict for a long time and are getting drawn into it deeper… and in fact they are fighting on the side of the Kiev regime,” Lavrov said during a press conference following talks with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian in Moscow.
He also noted that the West no longer wishes to stop the conflict in Ukraine, and is instead working to prolong it. Lavrov pointed to a recent statement made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who claimed that any ceasefire or truce proposed by Moscow could not be allowed because it would only be in the interests of Russia.
“It is difficult for me to say what such a shallow, frankly speaking, analysis is based on. The only assumption is that the West does not want to stop this war and sees its own geopolitical interests in this war – primarily from the point of view of its attempts to eliminate another competitor on the world stage in the face of the Russian Federation,” Lavrov noted.
The diplomat also added that the West has a similar stance towards China. “Our Chinese friends are well aware that they too are already mentioned in NATO documents as competitors and long-term adversaries who must be neutralized,” Lavrov said. He noted that Russia, Iran and China will “categorically oppose” Washington and its allies’ attempts to establish Western hegemony.
Russia has repeatedly accused the West of waging a “proxy war” against it in Ukraine by continuing to provide billions of dollars worth of military aid to Kiev while imposing multiple rounds of sweeping sanctions on Moscow.
