Let NATO fight, Russia is prepared – Lavrov
The Western bloc has committed to fighting Russia in Ukraine, the foreign minister said | Russia is prepared for NATO to continue to fight in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday. Several days earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg rejected any moves to “freeze” the conflict, despite mounting Ukrainian losses. ● In an interview with Germany’s Welt am Sonntag published on Sunday, Stoltenberg declared that “peace cannot mean freezing the conflict and accepting a deal that is dictated by Russia.” Stoltenberg added that “only Ukraine can define the conditions that are acceptable,” an explicit endorsement of Kiev’s vow to drive Russian forces back to pre-conflict borders and seize the Russian territory of Crimea. 💬 “If NATO, through the mouth of Stoltenberg, once again declares that they are against freezing, as they say, the conflict in Ukraine, then they want to fight,” Lavrov told a press conference. “Well, let them fight, we are ready for this, we have long understood the goals of NATO in the situation around Ukraine, which have been formed for many years.”
■ ‘We need Russia, and Russia needs us’ – former Reagan adviser to RT (RT.com) | The two countries “should go and find a way to get back to discussing something else besides war,” the former adviser insisted, referring to the conflict in Ukraine. Russia has described the fighting in the neighboring country as a “proxy war” waged by the Americans and their allies against Moscow. “It’s a lot easier and a lot cheaper [to talk] than to use weapons,” the 92-year-old added.