Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a press conference after addressing the 78th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, U.S. on September 23, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Western powers through their support to Ukraine have effectively entered direct fighting against Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on September 23.

“You can call it anything you want, but they are fighting with us, they are straight-up fighting with us. We call it a hybrid war, but that doesn’t change things,” Mr. Lavrov told a news conference at the United Nations.

U.S. President Joe Biden has repeatedly said he is seeking to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia, a fellow nuclear power, and will not send American troops. His administration has also distanced itself from Ukrainian attacks into Russia itself.

But Mr. Lavrov pointed to the billions of dollars in Western military equipment provided to Kyiv since Russia attacked last year, as well as U.S. and British intelligence support and the presence of Western military advisors.

Westerners are “de facto fighting against us, using the hands and bodies of Ukrainians,” Mr. Lavrov said.

“I think everybody present here who pays at least some attention to… the situation in Ukraine knows very well that Americans, Britons and others are fighting, first of all, through providing more and more weapons,” he said.

He also pointed to the presence in Ukraine of Western mercenaries. The United States and several other Western governments say that they discourage citizens from traveling to Ukraine and that such fighters have gone on their own.

Mr. Lavrov was taking part in the annual United Nations General Assembly, where all eyes were on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who flew to New York to appeal for greater support against the invasion.

Mr. Zelenskyy on Wednesday addressed a special Security Council session, in which he demanded that Russia be stripped of its veto. Lavrov showed up well after the Ukrainian president had spoken.

“I watched it on TV. He seemed rather grim,” Mr. Lavrov said.

“But I have my own affairs to attend to. We all knew what he was going to say, so why waste time?”

Mr. Zelenskyy has promoted a 10-point blueprint for ending the war that would include a complete Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory — including Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014 — and a special tribunal for accountability on war crimes.

Mr. Lavrov scoffed at Mr. Zelenskyy’s plan and denounced the United States and European Union for backing it.

“It is not realistic and everybody understands this, but at the same time they say this is the only basis for negotiations,” Mr. Lavrov said.

“We draw our conclusion that nobody wants to seriously show an understanding of what is happening,” he said.

On ending the conflict, “under these circumstances, if they say it’s on the battlefield, then fine, it’ll be on the battlefield.”

Moscow:

Moscow and Beijing are closely aligned in their positions on the United States and resolving the Ukraine conflict, the Russian foreign ministry said following talks between their top diplomats on Monday. The statement came after China’s Wang Yi kicked off a four-day visit to Moscow with a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the two strategic allies.

“The similarity of the parties’ positions regarding US actions in the international arena, including those of an anti-Russian and anti-Chinese nature, was stated,” Russia’s foreign ministry said.

“The parties discussed in detail the current state of affairs in Ukraine, noting the futility of attempts to resolve the crisis without taking into account Russia’s interests and, all the more so, without Russia’s participation,” it added.

Wang also told Lavrov about the content of talks he held over the weekend with US President Joe Biden’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan, the statement said.

Russia and China frequently tout their “no limits” partnership and economic and military cooperation. 

China has sought to position itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict, while offering Moscow a vital diplomatic and financial lifeline as its international isolation deepens.

According to a Chinese state media readout, Wang reiterated Beijing’s position paper on the Ukraine conflict, which called for peace talks but was met with scepticism by the United States and NATO when it was released earlier this year. 

Wang told Lavrov the plan “takes into account the security concerns of all parties and is conducive to eliminating the root causes of the conflict”, according to China’s Xinhua.

“A permanent good-neighbourly friendship, comprehensive strategic cooperation, and mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Russia will continue to contribute to the development and revitalisation of each country,” he added.

During his visit, Wang is due to hold security consultations at the invitation of Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s security council.

President Xi Jinping made a state visit to Moscow in March and declared that relations between the two countries were entering a new era.

An aide to Vladimir Putin said in July that the Russian president was planning to visit China in October.

At the annual Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok last week, Putin told Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing that ties between Russia and China “have reached an absolutely unprecedented, historical level”.

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