Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called the West an “empire of lies” and accused it of adopting a neo-colonial mindset in its overtures to the global south to win support for Ukraine in the war.
After a week of intense global diplomacy at the annual meeting of world leaders at the U.N. headquarters in New York, where Ukraine and its Western allies sought to drum up support for Kiev in the fight against the Russian invasion, Lavrov said there was a “global majority”. be deceived by the West.
“The United States and its subordinate collective continue to foment conflicts that artificially divide humanity into hostile blocs and hinder the achievement of general goals,” Lavrov said.
“They are trying to force the world to play by their own self-centered rules.”
James Bays, Al Jazeera’s diplomatic correspondent, said Lavrov’s speech was part of a “tour around the world of Russia’s views” that included no real mention of Ukraine and few references to Moscow’s plan a year after the conflict began.
During a press conference following the speech, the foreign minister rejected a 10-point proposal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as recent UN proposals to revive the Black Sea Grains Initiative.
“This is absolutely not feasible,” he said of the Kiev-sponsored peace proposal. “That is not feasible. It’s not realistic and everyone understands that, but at the same time they say that this is the only basis for negotiations.”
He also said the UN proposal would fail because the West had failed to keep its promises to Moscow, including lifting sanctions on a Russian bank and reconnecting it to the global SWIFT system.
The invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered trade disruptions and a significant increase in international prices for energy, agricultural commodities and fertilizers, which were already elevated due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Russia’s foreign minister blamed crises in food and energy markets on Western nations that are imposing “unilateral coercive measures” – or sanctions – on weaker countries.
Lavrov’s speech came as Zelensky presented state awards to two Polish volunteers during a stopover as relations between the two countries are strained over grain imports. He did not meet with officials.
Zelensky angered his neighbors when he told the UN General Assembly that Kiev was working to maintain overland routes for grain exports but that the “political theater” surrounding imports was only helping Moscow.
Poland decided last week to extend a ban on imports of Ukrainian grain, shaking Kiev’s ties with a neighbor that has been one of its strongest allies since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.
Zelensky thanked all Poles who “from the first days opened their families, their homes, opened up and helped.”
“I believe that all the challenges on our journey together are nothing compared to the fact that there is such strength between our people,” he said.
Continue fighting
Ukraine continues its counteroffensive to repel the Russian invasion and retake its lost territories. They launched another rocket attack on Sevastopol on the occupied Crimean peninsula on Saturday morning, a day after an attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet that left a soldier missing and the main building ablaze.
Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told Voice of America on Saturday that at least nine people were killed and 16 others were injured in Kiev’s attack on the Black Sea Fleet on Friday.
Budanov claimed that Alexander Romanchuk, a Russian general who commanded troops along the key southeastern front, was “in a very serious condition” after the attack.
Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi reported from Kiev that Ukrainian military intelligence had confirmed the death toll. At least two senior generals were injured, while the fate of Russia’s Black Sea Navy chief Viktor Sokolov remained unknown.
Russia did not confirm the number of victims.
Crimea was the key hub for Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Sevastopol, the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet since the 19th century, has been of particular importance for naval operations since the beginning of the war.
Hanna Shelest, a security analyst at the Ukrainian non-governmental organization Prism, said Kiev’s attacks on Crimea were important for Kiev’s strategy and morale.
Most attacks on Ukraine’s southern region come from Crimea and steps to reduce capabilities there are strategically important, Shelest told Al Jazeera.
The Ukrainian military said the air force carried out 12 attacks on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters on Friday, targeting areas where personnel, military equipment and weapons were concentrated. It said two anti-aircraft missile systems and four Russian artillery units were hit.
Ukraine has increasingly targeted naval facilities in Crimea in recent weeks, while the brunt of its counteroffensive in Ukraine’s east and south has made slow progress.