Russia on Monday warned of the real danger of a third world war after senior US officials visited Ukraine and assured them it was possible to win the conflict with “the right equipment”.
In the face of unprecedented western sanctions against Moscow and growing military support to Ukraine, Russian diplomat Sergei Lavrov warned that “the threat (of world war) is serious, real and should not be underestimated”.
Lavrov also accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of “faking” negotiations. “He’s a good actor, but if you look closely and read carefully what he’s saying, you’ll find thousands of contradictions,” he said.
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1 of 2 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a news conference March 24 — Photo: Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool via REUTERS
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a news conference March 24 — Photo: Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool via REUTERS
“Goodwill has limits, but if it is not mutual, it does not contribute to the negotiation process. But we continue negotiations with the team sent by Zelenskyy,” Lavrov continued.
Since the war began more than two months ago, Zelenskyy has constantly urged the Western Allies to send in heavier weapons to counter Russia’s theoretical military superiority.
And the requests seem to be working. In the past few days, several NATO countries have pledged to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons and equipment, despite protests from Moscow.
Visit by US officials
That growing support was evident Sunday when two senior US officials visited Kyiv, Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for a threehour meeting with Zelenskyy.
“The first step to winning is believing you can win. And they think they can win,” Austin told a group of reporters after the meeting. “They can win if they have the right equipment and support,” he added.
In a previous speech, President Zelenskyy said that Ukraine’s victory was only a matter of time and that Ukraine was “a true symbol of the freedom struggle” “thanks to the courage” of the people.
2 of 2 Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (right) and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) meet with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy Sunday (24) in Kyiv — Photo: US Department of Defense / via AP Photo
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (right) and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) meet with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday / via AP Photo
During the visit, Austin and Blinken announced the dispatch of $700 million in additional military assistance, bringing the United States’ total US contribution to $3.4 billion.
“We want Russia to be weakened to the point where they can’t do anything like they did when they invaded Russia,” Austin said after returning to Poland on Monday.
In addition to this support, the UK will send a “small quantity” of Stormer armored antiaircraft missile launchers, the defense secretary said.
The United States used the meeting with Zelenskyy to announce the gradual reopening of the American embassy in Kyiv and the appointment of the current ambassador to Slovakia, Bridget Brink, as head of that mission, which has been vacant since 2019.
Russia denounces border attacks
Fighting continued on the battlefields, now centered in eastern and southern Ukraine, causing damage to Ukraine that overshadowed Easter celebrations in that predominantly Orthodox country.
According to local prosecutors, at least five people died and 18 were injured in Russian bombing raids on railway facilities in the cities of Khmerynka and Koziatyn (Vinnytsia region in the country’s midwest).
For his part, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine accused Kyiv of bombing a village, injuring two civilians and damaging two houses.
Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of attacking its territory, notably two villages in Belgorod and one village in the Briansk region.
Russian authorities also reported a fire of unknown origin at a fuel depot in Bryansk, which serves as a logistical base for their forces, and the shooting down of two drones in the Kursk region, also on the border with Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air force hit 82 military targets, including four command posts and two oil depots. They also claim to have hit 27 targets with highprecision missiles.
For its part, the Ukrainian ministry claimed that Russia was attacking its partners’ infrastructure and supply lines for military supplies.
Fighting also continues in the Kharkov region (Ukraine’s secondlargest city in northeast), where daily shelling has forced civilians to sleep in underground makeshift shelters for weeks.
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The conflict, which began with the Russian invasion on February 24, has entered its third month with an undetermined number of thousands dead, more than five million displaced and millions more internally displaced.
The bloodiest fighting took place in the almost entirely Russiancontrolled port city of Mariupol (southeast) on the Sea of Azov, although thousands of people resisted in precarious conditions at the Azovstal power plant.
Ukraine has accused Russian forces of conducting hostilities against the complex despite Vladimir Putin’s order not to attack, and Russia says Kyiv is preventing its soldiers and civilians from exiting the complex through authorized humanitarian corridors.
The city is at the center of Moscow’s plans to open a land bridge between the proRussian breakaway territories of Donbass and the Crimean peninsula, annexed since 2014.
The conflict also disrupted any diplomatic cooperation between Russia and Western countries. On Monday Moscow announced the expulsion of 40 German diplomats in response to a similar action taken by Berlin in early April after the start of the Russian offensive.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced in The Hague that it would take part in the European Union’s investigation into possible international crimes in Ukraine.
In this context, UN SecretaryGeneral António Guterres is today visiting Turkey, a country trying to mediate in the conflict, before leaving for Moscow and then Kyiv on Tuesday.