U.S., NATO directly involved in Ukraine conflict: Russian Foreign Minister

Russia’s foreign minister accused the West on December 1 of becoming directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine by supplying the country with weapons and training its soldiers. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also said that Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities and other key infrastructure were intended to weaken Ukraine’s military potential and derail the shipments of Western weapons. You are training their military on your territory, on the territories of Britain, Germany, Italy and other countries.” He said the barrages of missiles, drones and artillery fire that have left millions of Ukrainians without power, heating and water was intended to “knock out energy facilities that allow you to keep pumping deadly weapons into Ukraine in order to kill the Russians.” “The infrastructure that is targeted by those attacks is used to ensure the combat potential of the Ukrainian armed forces and the nationalist battalions,” Lavrov said. Asked if a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden was possible, Mr. Lavrov replied that “we don’t shun contacts” but added that “we haven’t yet heard any serious ideas yet.” Mr. Lavrov said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has raised the issue of U.S. citizens imprisoned in Russia in a phone call, but he noted that Mr. Putin and Mr. Biden agreed to set up a separate channel of communication between special services to discuss the issue when they met in Geneva in June 2021. Commenting on Russia's decision to postpone a round of nuclear arms control talks with the United States that was scheduled for this week, Mr. Lavrov maintained "it’s impossible to discuss strategic stability nowadays while ignoring everything that is happening in Ukraine.” “The goal has been announced to defeat Russia on the battlefield or even destroy Russia,” he said.