Tag Archives: Sergei Lavrov

Putin’s Top Diplomat Revives One Of Russia’s Most Toxic Claims – And Turns It Against The UK

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Vladimir Putin’s top diplomat has attacked Europe once again as Ukraine’s allies make grinding progress with US-brokered peace talks.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov accused the UK, France, Belgium and the Baltic States of “resurrecting” Nazism in a fresh takedown of the continent.

Putin justified his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 by falsely claiming the country needed to be “denazified” and “demilitarised”.

Almost four years later, that excuse has returned – but is now being levelled at Ukraine’s allies, all while they are trying to negotiate a peace deal.

Europe has tried to water down Donald Trump’s pro-Kremlin peace plan so it does not end up sacrificing too much of Ukraine’s sovereignty, or rewarding Putin for his aggression.

These efforts have, unsurprisingly, not been welcomed in the Kremlin.

Russia has long criticised Ukraine’s allies for supporting the beleaguered country throughout the war.

Putin has also been dragging his feet in early peace talks, refusing to compromise on any of his maximalist goals.

Speaking to Iranian broadcasters on Monday – hours after European leaders held crunch talks over the Ukraine war – senior Putin aide Lavrov attacked the continent yet again.

Without any evidence, he said: “The saddest and the most hazardous thing is that the theory and practices of Nazism are being resurrected in Europe, primarily in Brussels but also in Berlin, London, Paris, not to mention the Baltic States.”

He also claimed: “Europe is waging a war with us once again with Ukrainians under a Nazi flag, using European money, instructors and all Western intelligence and reconnaissance data while Europe is pumping Ukraine with increasingly more modern weapons.”

Russia started the war by invading Ukraine in a land grab and now controls a fifth of its land.

Western leaders have repeatedly expressed fears that if Russia were permitted to seize Ukrainian land, Putin would come back for territory and eat into Europe.

Lavrov then appeared to wipe out Ukraine’s history altogether.

He said: “Another threat consists of cancelling everything Russian in territories which used to be inhabited by Russians for many centuries and which had a Russian culture and history but happened to become part of Ukraine.”

He also alleged: “Europe is like a failed doctor who struggles to diagnose his patients and opts for randomly prescribing pills or mixtures to ease the symptoms, if only for a brief moment.

“These Europeans doctors have been unwilling to come up with a diagnosis.”

Russia is yet to respond officially to the new proposals from Europe around ending the war – but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov suggested Moscow remained unwilling to compromise.

He said: “We want to stop this war, achieve our goals, secure our interests, and guarantee peace in Europe for the future. That’s what we want.”

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Putin’s Top Diplomat Hits Out At Zelenskyy With 2 Damning Words Over Peace Talks

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A top Russian diplomat dubbed Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “nothing man” today after the Ukrainian president called for Vladimir Putin to attend the ongoing peace talks.

At Donald Trump’s insistence, Zelenskyy flew to Turkey for the first face-to-face discussions between Ukraine and Russia since early 2022, when Putin invaded.

However, the Russian leader has snubbed Kyiv by choosing not to attend Thursday’s negotiations in Istanbul – despite personally suggesting the direct talks between the warring countries last week.

When the Kremlin confirmed Putin was simply sending a low-calibre delegation in his place, Zelenskyy told reporters it was clear Moscow was not “serious” about ending the war.

“Russia does not feel that it needs to end [the war], which means there is not enough political, economic and other pressure on the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian president said.

“And so we ask, if there is no ceasefire, if there are no serious decisions… we ask for appropriate sanctions.”

Zelenskyy still sent a delegation headed up by Ukraine’s defence minister for the talks in Istanbul but stayed in Ankara himself for talks with his Turkish counterpart.

According to Russian state news agency TASS, Putin’s top diplomat was less than happy with the Ukrainian president’s attack on the Kremlin.

Speaking on Thursday, Sergei Lavrov said: “First, Zelenskyy made some statements demanding that Putin attend in person. A nothing man. It’s clear to everyone – except perhaps to him and those pulling his strings.”

The Kremlin has been trying to discredit Zelenskyy ever since launching a full-scale invasion on Ukraine more than three years ago.

Putin’s false claim that Zelenskyy is not a legitimate president was even picked up by Trump earlier this year, as the American president claimed he is a “dictator without elections.”

But once Moscow started to drag its heels over negotiations, Trump began to accuse Putin of not wanting to end the war.

The Ukrainian president also pointed out on Thursday that Trump has been pressuring Kyiv “more than the Russians”.

He said: “You have to pressurise the side that does not want to end the war. The position of Turkey and the United States, you saw that President Trump thought it would help to pressurise both sides – I think they pressurised us more than the Russians.

“Ukraine is fighting for itself. We are not ready to lose our lives and land. That does not mean we are aggressors.”

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UK To Personally Sanction Vladimir Putin After Ukraine Invasion

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The UK will personally sanction Russian president Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson has told a virtual meeting of Nato leaders.

Putin and his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov are being targeted over their “revanchist mission” to overturn the post-Cold War order, the prime minister said.

He told alliance leaders on Friday that the UK would echo measures announced by the EU to target the Russian leader.

Referring to Putin’s wish to recover territory which previously fell under the USSR, he said Russia was “engaging in a revanchist mission to overturn post-Cold War order”.

Johnson told allies “the UK would introduce sanctions against president Putin and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov imminently, on top of the sanctions package the UK announced yesterday”, according to a No 10 spokesman.

“He warned the group that the Russian president’s ambitions might not stop there and that this was a Euro-Atlantic crisis with global consequences,” he said.

Johnson also used the meeting to urge “immediate action” over the banning of Russia from the Swift payment system to “inflict maximum pain” on the Kremlin.

It comes as frustrated Russian forces are prepared to “indiscriminately” use thermobaric bombs to seize control of Ukraine, Western officials believe.

One western official said it was “likely” that Russia failed to achieve its main objectives on day one of its invasion of Ukraine.

The official added: “And my fear with those objectives, that timescale not being met, is if that continues to be a theme where they are delayed and then my concern is that that Russia uses indiscriminate use of indirect fire, particularly artillery systems, thermobaric weapons – which we know Russia has both in its armoury and has used in previous conflicts.

“At the moment we’re not seeing the use of those particular weapons. But my fear would be that if they don’t meet the timescales and objectives that they would be indiscriminate in the use of violence and they don’t adhere to the same principles of necessity and proportionality and rule of law that Western forces do.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president issued a sombre warning to leaders of the EU as Russian forces continue to violently invade the country.

“This might be the last time you see me alive,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly told EU leaders on a conference call on Thursday night.

Zelenskyy is currently hiding in Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv as more than 100,000 Russian troops continue to attack the country on Putin’s orders.

“We were supposed to talk on the phone this morning, but he was no longer available,” Italian prime minister Mario Draghi told his parliament on Friday morning of Zelenskyy.

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