Russia has laughed off Ukrainian claims that the brutal war between the two countries is near an end. Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the war with Russia could end sooner than some people think.
Russian foreign ministry Sergey Lavrov said Moscow’s response to Kyiv was simply to keep winning the war, which he said was “unleashed by Western countries at the hands of Ukrainians”.
He said: “The victory is needed. They [the West] do not understand any other language. This victory will be ours, we have no doubt.” Mr Lavrov added that Russians had become “truly united in the face of war”.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov echoed Mr Lavrov, saying that the conflict would only end when Russia’s aims were achieved.
The Russian remarks came on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, where Ukraine’s Zelensky has spoken about his “victory plan”. He told US news broadcaster ABC: “I think that we are closer to peace than we think.”
Mr Zelensky, who will address the UN General Assembly today, said the Ukrainian victory plan was “a bridge to a diplomatic way out, to stop the war”.
He said that the plan relied on Western countries allowing Ukraine to ease restrictions on the use of long-range missiles which could be used to strike deep into Russia.
Mykhailo Samus, director of the New Geopolitics Research Network, told the BBC that a top priority in the so-called victory plan will be to “hit Russia strongly”.
The military analyst said that giving Kyiv the power to destroy military infrastructure within a 300km range could seriously hamper the Kremlin’s offensive operations in the Donbas and its ability to “neutralise” Ukraine’s ongoing incursion in the Kursk region.
Despite the Ukrainian hope, Russia is close to several breakthroughs on the frontline in eastern Ukraine.
Russian troops are closing in on Vuhledar – a city in the southern Donbas that the Russians have been trying to seize since 2022.
Ukrainian military expert and retired colonel Kostyantyn Mashovets said his fellow Ukrainians had to be “psychologically prepared” for the loss of major cities, including Selydove, Toretsk and Vuhledar in the eastern region of Donbas.
Meanwhile, Mr Lavrov also attempted to stir tensions among EU and NATO countries during his interview.
Russia’s top diplomat claimed that Eastern European countries – and former Soviet allies – were treated with contempt by other Western leaders.
He said: “Eastern European countries now under the wing of NATO or the roof of the European Union must understand how their masters feel about them.
“They don’t trust them. They don’t even want to let them anywhere near anything approaching significant job positions.”
