Russia\u2019s foreign minister on Tuesday warned anew Ukraine that it must demilitarize, threatening further military action and falsely accusing Kyiv and the West of fueling\u00a0the war\u00a0that started with Moscow\u2019s invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine must remove any military threat to Russia \u2014 otherwise \u201cthe Russian army (will) solve the issue.\u201d His comments also reflected persistent unfounded claims by the Kremlin that Ukraine and its Western allies were responsible for the 10-month war, which has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia launched the war on Feb. 24, alleging a threat to its security and a plot to bring NATO to its doorstep. Lavrov reiterated on Tuesday that the West was feeding the war in Ukraine to weaken Russia, and said that it depends on Kyiv and Washington how long the conflict will last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs for the duration of the conflict, the ball is on the side of the (Kyiv) regime and Washington that stands behind its back,\u201d Lavrov told the state Tass news agency. \u201cThey may stop senseless resistance at any moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an apparent reaction, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted that \u201cRussia needs to face the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNeither total mobilization, nor panicky search for ammo, nor secret contracts with Iran, nor Lavrov\u2019s threats will help,\u201d he said. \u201cUkraine will demilitarize the RF (Russian Federation) to the end, oust the invaders from all occupied territories. Wait for the finale silently\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A day earlier,\u00a0Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the Associated Press in an interview\u00a0that his government wants a summit to end the war but that he doesn\u2019t anticipate Russia taking part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kuleba said Ukraine wants a \u201cpeace\u201d summit within two months with U.N. Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres acting as mediator. But he also said that Russia must face a war crimes tribunal before before his country directly talks with Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both statements illustrate how complex and difficult any attempts to end the war could be. Ukraine has said in the past that it wouldn\u2019t negotiate with Russia before the full withdrawal of its troops, while Moscow insists its military gains and the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Testifying to the hardships of war, families of Ukrainian prisoners of war believed held by Russia on Tuesday said the Christmas holiday season is particularly painful and appealed for more to be done to bring their loves ones back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither Ukraine nor Russia have revealed the exact numbers of POWs they hold, while hundreds have been released as part of prisoner exchanges. Iryna Latysh\u2019s husband Yevhen was captured exactly 300 days ago, in the early days of the war, and she says Christmas isn\u2019t the same without him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were decorating the Christmas tree together this time last year,\u201d she sobbed. \u201cWe put the star together, the decorations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.N. human rights investigators\u00a0have warned that Ukrainian POWs appear to be facing \u201csystematic\u201d mistreatment \u2014 including torture \u2014 both when they are captured and when they are transferred into areas controlled by Russian forces or Russia itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, fierce fighting continued on Tuesday in the Russia-claimed Donetsk and Luhansk regions that recently have been the scene of the most intense clashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukraine\u2019s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that Russian forces are trying to encircle the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, but without success. Heavy battles are also underway around the city of Kreminna in the Luhansk region, Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the partially occupied southern Kherson region, Russian forces shelled Ukrainian-held areas 40 times on Monday, wounding one person, Ukrainian authorities said. The city of Kherson itself \u2014 which Ukraine retook last month in a major win \u2014 was targeted 11 times, said regional administrator Yaroslav Yanushevich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since its initial advances at the start of the war 10 months ago, Russia has made few major gains, often pummeling Ukraine\u2019s infrastructure instead and leaving millions without electricity, heating and hot water amid winter conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lavrov didn\u2019t specify how the Russian army will achieve its goals of demilitarizing and \u201cdenazifying\u201d Ukraine \u2014 which was Russia\u2019s stated goal when the invasion started in February. The reference to \u201cdenazification\u201d comes from Russia\u2019s allegations that the Ukrainian government is heavily influenced by radical nationalist and neo-Nazi groups. The claim is derided by Ukraine and the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lavrov warned further Western support for Ukraine could lead to direct confrontation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe keep warning our adversaries in the West about the dangers of their course to escalate the Ukrainian crisis,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cthe risk that the situation could spin out of control remains high.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe strategic goal of the U.S. and its NATO allies is to win a victory over Russia on the battlefield to significantly weaken or even destroy our country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree banning oil exports to countries that support a $60-per-barrel price cap that was declared by the European Union and Group of Seven countries in a bid to reduce Moscow\u2019s revenue during wartime. The ban takes effect in February and will run through July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The price cap is higher than what Russian oil has sold for in recent weeks, so the potential effects of Putin\u2019s ban are uncertain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russia\u2019s foreign minister on Tuesday warned anew Ukraine that it must demilitarize, threatening further military action and falsely accusing Kyiv and the West of fueling\u00a0the war\u00a0that started with Moscow\u2019s invasion. Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine must remove any military threat to Russia \u2014 otherwise \u201cthe Russian army (will) solve the issue.\u201d His comments also reflected persistent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":28773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11264,6349,8217,7602,8348,13263,12758,5110,9331,10767,8440,5846,7516,6193,5800,9505,1195,6738,9127,5345,2264,6345,1971,10840,8995,11493,5252,5205,7601,9515,1152,5342,6843,3874,6194,5572,9683,5340,9421,12187,4802,3773,9237,5441,11973,5396,3805,11377,12103,11926,10959,71,8383,5807,3457,5217,5655,6815,9030,7931,7586,9178,5180,5555,7231,10885,694,5251,5761,2354,8869,3954,8964],"class_list":["post-28772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-allegations","tag-antonio-guterres","tag-army","tag-bakhmut","tag-ban","tag-cap","tag-captured","tag-christmas","tag-city","tag-conflict","tag-crisis","tag-displaced","tag-dmytro-kuleba","tag-donetsk","tag-electricity","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-families","tag-february","tag-foreign-minister","tag-government","tag-guterres","tag-holiday","tag-human-rights","tag-infrastructure","tag-interview","tag-invasion","tag-july","tag-kherson","tag-killed","tag-kremlin","tag-kyiv","tag-lavrov","tag-lead","tag-luhansk","tag-military","tag-millions","tag-moscow","tag-mykhailo-podolyak","tag-n","tag-nato","tag-nazi","tag-nio","tag-oil","tag-one","tag-peace","tag-president","tag-presidential","tag-price","tag-prisoners","tag-prisoners-of-war","tag-putin","tag-revenue","tag-risk","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-security","tag-sergey-lavrov","tag-success","tag-territories","tag-torture","tag-troops","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian","tag-union","tag-victory","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war","tag-war-crimes","tag-washington","tag-water","tag-will","tag-winter"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}