Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to provoke a conflict between Russia and NATO, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday.
According to Lavrov, by expressing his disappointment with the bloc’s refusal to intervene, Zelensky is demonstrating his desire to drag NATO into the conflict, Sputnik reported.
“The constant embittered statements by Mr Zelensky do not add optimism”, Lavrov noted, adding, “He was a little rude to his curators, accusing them of inaction. And I have a question: if he was so upset that NATO did not stand up for him, as he hoped, then he still hoped for a settlement of the conflict by involving NATO in this whole story, and not through negotiations … It turns out that he still wants to provoke a conflict”.
The date for the next round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine has not been settled yet, the Russian foreign minister said, pointing at the reluctance of the Ukrainian side to engage.
“The situation looks rather strange, it seems that everyone is interested in reaching an early agreement on how to fully resolve everything. And on the other hand, it would seem that the most interested side, the Ukrainian side, constantly comes up with pretexts to postpone the start of the next meeting,” Lavrov said.
The top Russian diplomat suggested that Zelensky’s “militaristic frenzy” indicates that he does not need the talks with Moscow. Still, Lavrov said Russia hopes that Zelensky’s mood changes.
The negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are taking place in Belarus, with the first round occurring on February 28, followed by a second meeting on March 3. During the second round, the parties reached an understanding on the joint provision of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians, along with the delivery of food and medicine. The Ukrainian side said that a third round of talks is expected to kick off next week.
NATO previously said that it does not consider itself a part of the conflict, stressing that the alliance will not deploy troops in Ukraine or move planes into its airspace. However, NATO continues to supply weapons to Ukraine, and said it will increase these supplies.
Lavrov stated that Russia was ready to help with the evacuation of foreign students from Kharkov, but was prevented from doing so by Ukrainian forces.
“It would seem that the Ukrainian regime is not averse to holding foreigners and civilians in general as hostages,” Lavrov added.
The minister elaborated that the Russian military had some 150 buses stocked with drinks, food, and warm clothes ready to pick up and evacuate a significant number of civilians, including foreign students. Lavrov said that the Ukrainian side refused to open the corridor for them.
Forces from the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) earlier said that the authorities in Mariupol had refused to let their citizens leave the city via the humanitarian corridor created by the Russian military.
The Russian Defence Ministry separately said that according to its information, nationalist battalions are holding around 5,000 foreigners hostage in Ukrainian cities and are using them as human shields.
The Defence Ministry said that some 1,755 foreigners, including 1,500 students from India, are being held in Kharkov, surrounded by Russian forces. An additional 1,106 foreigners are currently being held in the Sumy. Head of the Russian National Defence Management Centre Mikhail Mizintsev added that a group of around 20 Pakistani students attempted to leave Sumy and travel to the checkpoint Sudzha on the Russian border, but were beaten by nationalists serving in Ukrainian territorial defence units.
“The West and international organisations pretend not to notice the extreme plight of people in the territories controlled by neo-Nazis and Banderites,” Mizintsev added.
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Russia and Ukraine agreed to open humanitarian corridors during the second round of talks in Belarus on March 3. The Russian military announced a ceasefire to open humanitarian corridors and allow civilians to exit the city at 7:00 GMT on March 5 .
The attempts at evacuating civilians take place as Russia continues its special military operation in Ukraine, which Kiev and its allies call an “invasion”.
Moscow said that the mission’s goals were to demilitarise Ukraine, removing weapons that endanger Russia from its territory, protect the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), as well as to de-Nazify the country. Russia specifically stressed that it is only conducting airstrikes against Ukrainian military infrastructure and is doing everything to avoid hitting infrastructure and civilians.
