Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sees a real danger of a third world war. In an interview with Russian television, he also made it clear that he considers NATO arms deliveries to Ukraine to be legitimate targets for his country. Two months after the start of the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin received UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Moscow on Tuesday.
The danger of a third world war is “serious, it’s real, it shouldn’t be underestimated,” Lavrov said in the interview the Foreign Ministry shared on its Telegram channel on Monday night. At the same time, he explained that he did not want the risks to be artificially inflated in such a situation. There are many sides that want that, he said, without being specific. The inadmissibility of a nuclear war remains Russia’s main position.
Lavrov: NATO arms shipments are legitimate targets
Asked about comparing the current situation to the time of the Cuban missile crisis, Lavrov said there were few written rules at the time. But the “rules of conduct” were quite clear – Moscow knew how Washington would behave, and Washington was sure how Moscow would behave. Even today there are few rules, Lavrov said, referring to the New Start nuclear disarmament treaty. But “at the same time, all other weapons control and non-proliferation instruments are virtually destroyed.”
Russia views NATO arms shipments to Ukraine as legitimate targets for its country. “Of course, these weapons will be a legitimate target for Russian forces,” Lavrov said in the interview. Camps, including those in western Ukraine, have become such targets more than once. “How could it be otherwise,” Lavrov continued. “If NATO actually goes to war with Russia through a proxy and arms that proxy, then you do in war what you have to do in war.”
Lavrov accused the United States and Britain of delaying negotiations with Ukraine. We know for sure that “neither London nor Washington” would advise Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to speed up negotiations, he said in the interview. “They always advise Zelenskyy to tighten his position.”
Zelenskyy: Russia will achieve nothing in this war
According to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, Moscow will not succeed in its war of aggression in Ukraine. In two months, the Russian armed forces launched more than 1,100 rockets, countless aerial bombs and artillery. Some Ukrainian places were destroyed, Zelenskyy said in his evening video speech, posted on Telegram late on Tuesday. “But they didn’t get anything. And they won’t get anything.”
Meanwhile, according to Russian officials, there was another bombing in the Belgorod region, on the border with Ukraine. This time, the village of Zhuravlevka was hit; At least two people were injured, the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on his Telegram channel on Monday. The region, which authorities say has been bombed several times, borders Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine also significantly disrupted agricultural production in Ukraine. This year’s grain harvest is expected to be around 20% lower than that of 2021 due to reduced areas sown after the invasion, the British Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence update on Monday night.
Ukraine is the world’s fourth largest producer and exporter of agricultural products, he said. A reduced supply of grain from Ukraine will create inflationary pressures and push up the global price of grain. At the same time, the UN World Food Program (WFP) is calling for grain trade routes from war-torn Ukraine to be kept open. The UN institution assumes that only about half of the previous year’s amount of wheat can be harvested.
SPD politician Roth believes EU sanctions against Schröder are possible
SPD politician Michael Roth does not rule out EU sanctions against former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. “Another indication of the tragedy of the Schröder affair is that we should seriously discuss sanctions against a former chancellor turned Russian energy lobbyist,” said the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag of the German Press Agency. “The European Union must continue to verify who is co-responsible for this war, who justifies and defends it or minimizes it. Ultimately, the EU must decide on this.”
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Two months after the start of the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin received UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Moscow on Tuesday. In addition to a larger diplomatic role for the United Nations, the Kremlin meeting will likely focus primarily on humanitarian access to the UN and safe escape routes for civilians, for example, from the besieged city of Mariupol.
At the invitation of the United States, representatives from several countries discussed Ukraine’s war at Ramstein Air Base in Rhineland-Palatinate on Tuesday. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin invited about 40 countries, among the participants were Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. One goal of the consultations is Ukraine’s enduring security and sovereignty, he said.