Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed this Friday, March 25, that the West was waging “an all-out hybrid war” against his country.
“Today we were declared a real hybrid war, a total war,” Lavrov said at a meeting of the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund in Moscow. “This term (total war), used by Hitler’s Germany, is now expressed by many European politicians when they talk about what they want to do with the Russian Federation,” he added.
For the minister, the West’s goals are “not hidden”. “They publicly declared: Destroy, break, annihilate, choke the Russian economy and Russia as a whole,” he said.
Lavrov pointed out that by harassing Russia, Western politicians are forgetting and betraying the values they have long proclaimed, including freedom of expression, the market economy, the inviolability of private property and the presumption of innocence.
“As soon as the West had to do something against Russia, it easily betrayed these values,” he added.
The foreign minister also pointed out that the West “does not rule out blackmailing countries around the world in order to achieve the desired results in UN voting”. He also said he doubted Russia would be isolated despite all efforts and pressure.
“Most countries of the world are interested in equal intergovernmental cooperation based on the key principles of the UN Charter,” the Russian minister assured.
Referring to the reasons for Russian aggression against Ukraine, he reiterated that the main goal is to protect the population of the rebel-controlled republics from “a military threat from Kyiv,” and that Moscow would not have done it if its Neighbor would have implemented the Minsk Agreement began its “military special operation”.
“For all the years that the Ukrainian authorities have evaded the implementation of the Minsk Agreement, the nationalists have destroyed objects of civilian infrastructure: hospitals, schools, all this is well known. These facts have been exposed by our media but hushed up in the West, including the killing of civilians,” the Russian official said.
Lavrov reiterated Russia’s concerns about US-funded military biological laboratories in Ukraine and promised that these issues will remain on the agenda of the UN Security Council.
He urged the members of the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund to take into account the geopolitical situation and emphasize the development of cooperation with countries that do not join the “anti-Russian hysteria”.
The war between Russia and Ukraine began on February 24. The European Union (EU), the US and the UK, among others, have imposed tough financial sanctions on Moscow, and several multinational companies have suspended their operations in Russia.
At least 1,035 civilians have been killed and 1,650 others injured in Ukraine so far, according to UN estimates, which warn the true figure is likely to be much higher.
According to the UN refugee agency, more than 3.7 million Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries and millions more have been internally displaced.
*Aicha Sandoval Alaguna contributed to the writing of this article.
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