Lavrov wants to draw new red line for the West - "Serious step towards unacceptable escalation"

Created: 05/27/2022, 05:42

By: Felix Durach

Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov has warned the West against supplying certain weapons.

He accuses Selenskyj of a lack of willingness to negotiate.

The news ticker.

• Escalated conflict in Ukraine:

  Russia's foreign minister

  has warned the

  western powers

  against

  supplying weapons

  and has spoken of an "unacceptable escalation".

• Lavrov accused the Ukrainian

  President Zelenskyj of a

  lack of willingness to

  negotiate

  .

  This is responsible for the faltering negotiations.

• This news ticker about the

  negotiations and diplomacy in the Russia-Ukraine war

  is updated regularly.

MOSCOW – Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned the West against fueling the situation in the Ukraine war by supplying certain arms.

The 72-year-old was reacting on Thursday not least to Kiev's demands for NATO multiple rocket launcher systems in order to be able to carry out counter-attacks against Russian troops in Donbass.

Among others, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for such a system to be made available by the western military alliance.

Lavrov threatens West – Russia calls “unacceptable escalation” in Ukraine war

According to the Russian news agency Tass, Lavrov called on the Western powers to refrain from delivering heavy weapon systems to the war zone.

Providing Ukraine with weapons that could be used to attack Russian territory is "a serious step towards an unacceptable escalation."

In the foreign broadcaster RT Arabic, which is loyal to the Kremlin, Lavrov appealed to the "reason" of Western politicians.

He hopes that there are still enough reasonable people in the West who would understand that.

"There are still a few of them left," added the 72-year-old.

However, it is not known which politician Lavrov is referring to with his statements.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned the West against further arms deliveries to Ukraine.

© Russian Foreign Ministry/imago-images

Ukraine war: Lavrov accuses Selenskyj of unwillingness to negotiate

Lavrov was also dissatisfied with a view to possible negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.

The defense minister accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of a lack of willingness to negotiate.

Zelenskyy had announced that he would not be ready for direct talks with Vladimir Putin until Russian troops withdrew to the February 24 borders.

"You don't have to explain or prove to anyone that this isn't serious," Lavrov said, according to the Interfax agency.

"It suits the West to also support this intellectually unsupported intransigence," he says.

Kyiv had previously accused the Russian leadership of not being interested in serious negotiations.

Rather, Moscow would now try to detach them from Kyiv by issuing Russian passports to the residents of the occupied territories in eastern Ukraine.

In the first few weeks after the Russian attack, Moscow and Kyiv were still negotiating.

But talks ground to a halt when the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers after retreating from Kiev suburbs like Bucha came to light.

Unlike Ukraine, Russia had only sent second-tier politicians with no real influence.