Foreign
IF Western countries hope to help Ukraine to a battlefield victory against Russia, then there was probably no point in negotiations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
This happened shortly before leaving a G20 summit early on Friday.
“If the EU and the U.S. want to help Ukraine win on the ground then we probably have nothing to discuss with the West, Lavrov said.
He said this in his closing remarks at the summit on the Indonesian island of Bali.
International alignments and relations were very much in focus at the summit, since so many Western foreign ministers refused to conduct one-on-one talks with Lavrov while there.
The on-one talks with Lavrov were to protest Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Russia argued that it attacked to save ethnic Russians from attack in Ukraine and also to “de-Nazify’’ its neighbour, both charges that had been widely derided in the West.
But, on Friday, Lavrov accused Western powers of urging Ukraine to use their weapons and slammed Western countries for painting Russia to be an aggressor or occupier in the conflict without assessing the facts on the ground.
He also criticised the Western sanctions that had been laid on Russia since the invasion began in February.
Lavrov said he had come to the G20 summit to get an impression of how the West was breathing.
Lavrov did say that Russia was prepared to enter into talks with Ukraine and Turkey to find a way to allow Ukraine to export its grain supplies.
Ukraine is a key wheat supplier for many parts of the world.
But, due to the war and blockades of its ports, most of that wheat is not getting out, causing worldwide problems.
Additionally, Ukrainian forces had mined the port of Odesa which was still under Ukrainian control to hinder any Russian attack there.
Lavrov said Ukraine should remove the mines and allow free transit.
According to him, Russia and Turkey are prepared to provide security for Ukrainian shipments in international waters so that they can reach the Mediterranean.
He also slammed Western sanctions, saying the problem with worldwide food supplies was not a result of Ukrainian supplies drying up, but because international sanctions were keeping the Russian wheat harvest bottled up. (dpa/NAN)
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Tags: G20 Sergei Lavrov
