Top Russian officials have accused Kyiv and its allies of bringing humanity closer to World War 3 and prolonging the war in Ukraine in some eyebrow-raising reactions at the end of the first day of the NATO summit in Vilnius.
While President Zelensky expressed frustration that no firm timetable for his country joining the military alliance was laid out, his anger was dwarfed by that coming out of the Kremlin.
Why is Russia so angry?
Russian officials have been somewhat frustrated ever since their plan to capture Kyiv and take control of Ukraine in a few weeks in a “special operation” was scuppered by Ukrainian resistance.
To explain their lack of success, the Kremlin has long sought to portray their full-scale invasion as a war against not just Kyiv, but the West, particularly NATO countries.
Although NATO leaders on Tuesday didn’t lay out a timetable for Ukraine joining, they did shorten the eventual process Kyiv would have to go through to enter the alliance and emphasized that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO.”
In a bid to reassure Zelensky, G7 nations are expected to issue a declaration on how they will help Ukraine defeat Russia and deter any new aggression in the coming years.
What did Russia say?
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council, went into full-hyperbole mode, saying: “The completely crazy West could not come up with anything else... In fact, it’s a dead end. World War Three is getting closer.
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“What does all this mean for us? Everything is obvious. The special military operation will continue with the same goals.”
While the tone of Medvedev’s comments might not come as a surprise – he’s well known for making outlandish statements – they were echoed in a slightly calmer fashion by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
In an interview with the Indonesian newspaper Kompas ahead of meetings with his Southeast Asian counterparts in Jakarta this week, Lavrov lambasted the United States and its allies for supporting Ukraine.
“It will continue until the West abandons its plans to maintain dominance and its obsession with inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia through the hands of its puppet, Kyiv,” he said of the war the Kremlin started.
“There has been no sign of a change in their position, and we are seeing how America and its accomplices are continuously pumping weapons into Ukraine and pushing [Zelensky] to continue fighting.”
What does Lavrov expect Ukraine’s allies to do?
Lavrov praised what he called Jakarta’s independent foreign policy on the conflict. President Joko Widodo was the first Asian leader to visit both Moscow and Kyiv after the full-scale invasion began.
He then said Western nations were “ignoring initiatives coming from developing countries” after Kyiv did not take up Widodo’s offer to mediate or a controversial proposal from Indonesia’s defense minister that referendums be held in the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine.
Widodo’s plan would effectively reward Russia with great swathes of Ukrainian land, condemn millions of Ukrainians to living under Russian occupation and is obviously a non-starter for Kyiv.
Was there any other reaction from Russia?
There certainly was, only this was of a very different type indeed – Ukraine said on Wednesday, it had shot down 11 Russian drones overnight in a second consecutive night of attacks on the capital Kyiv.
"A total of 15 kamikaze drones were involved in the strike. Eleven of them were destroyed in the areas of responsibility of the Centre and East air commands," Ukraine's air force said on social media.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the biggest attack on a European country since World War II when he ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Since then, more than 150,000 people have been killed and wounded on both sides, according to Western estimates.
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Comments (10)
In retrospect, I’m glad I missed taking the scholarship opportunity to study in Russia some 39 years ago.
The indoctrination and backward thinking of the current Russian leadership is worst than the craziest African leaders.
if you ve been following events you will understand that Russia war with Ukraine is an existential war. and it all started in 2014. awitan were zelenski ni Oun fe join NATO. wake up Russia would never allow it happen. imagine what the u.s will do if a military alliance created with the sole aim of defeating America is created and headed by Russia or China, decide to admit Cuba and Mexico into its fold. how do you think the west will react. e jeki a fi abere gunra wa wo ki ato fi gun omo eyin. let's prick ourselves first with a needle so we can know how painful it is before you do it to another person or creature
@kehinde,
@Alan Everett, Your analogy is not factually accurate. Remember when they divided up Poland with the Nazis? Or how about when they went to war with Finland or took over Latvia Lithuanian and Estonia.
A group of Russians who are in power now have realized that they only have 145 million people under the dictatorship of Russia. The only solution they can come up with is to bring more people under the Russian dictatorship. They are too stubborn or blind to admit then they should reform the oligarchic beaurocratic economy using the vast resources Russia to become a world leader. They have chosen to try and conquer enough people so that they can have 300 or 400 million people under the Russian Boot and try to obtain rough parity (in an economic sense) with the West. All of these frontline NATO countries are worried that they're going to be next on the Invasion
When Ukraine gave up their nuclear weapons the Russians (and the US and others) guaranteed their territorial integrity. I guess we're supposed to just forget about those commitments we made. Maybe we should reconsider the idea and give Ukraine back a 100 or so nukes to act as a deterrent to Russian irresponsible actions. After all Russia is now deploying nukes in Belarus.
This immoral group of oligarchs in Russia have no right to use military power to try and rebuild some sort of Glorious golden age of Russia that never existed except in some deluded person's mind.
@Alan Everett, Yet Americans can place nuclear weapons whenever they want...you are a hypocrite clown
I think Medvedev's comments as what you get with mix dwarfism with alcohol with a telegram account. Another Kremlin narcissistic loser.
@Les, I think he has some “coke” in the cocktail. Otherwise he won’t be writing nonsense on his telegram handle.
The Indonesian President should stop and think about why any referendum in China about withdrawing their “coast guard “ and “fishing” fleets from Indonesian waters and islands would never succeed.
Then perhaps he might start to understand why this so called solution would only help perpetuate illegal annexation of parts of Ukraine.
As for the invalid argument that Russian speaking areas should belong to Russia, I wonder whether Canadians would then accept English speaking parts of Canada being taken over by America, (or England) on the same basis?
If Medvedev believes wold war 3 is getting closer why not remove the primary cause?
It’s clearly in the best interests of the Russian people to admit the Kremlins mistakes, withdraw false justifications used to manipulate Russian patriots, and withdraw all from Ukraine. The solution is actually that simple, and only false facts and false pride gets in the way
What a Weasley waste of air.
really! Americas fault? I would think maybe it has something yo do with Putin attacking Ukraine.
More delusions and cock flapping by a waste of man. They know very well what's happening to their special operation. As to Putin he has painted his self into a corner with no way out so here we are fighting a war about nothing.
@I support, sorry its,not about nothing it's about Ukrainians liberty. What i meant to say is Russia is the one fighting a war with no logical intent. Russia is the largest country in the world right now why do you need more territory? Nuts.
He is a monster but also a child. He knows very well that nothing works and will not start working in the near future. Like somewhat every Russian knows but only Yevgeny Prigozhin was ready to say it. The others are telling a lot of lies. And are someway believing that someday they will get a gift from the west and every thing will be as before.
Medvedev must have run out of vodka. What a pathetic waste.
Robin is sucking up to Batman