Reuters Russia demands for war to end: ‘Otherwise the army will decide’ 27.12.2022 08:58

Russia’s foreign minister accused Ukraine and the West of trying to destroy his country and said that Kiev should either accept Moscow’s demands to end the war or watch Russia’s armed forces catch up with them on the battlefield.

Sergei Lavrov’s remarks Monday night amid fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was open to negotiations, but only on Moscow terms.

This includes Ukraine’s recognition of the conquest of one-fifth of Russia’s territory. Armed and supported by the United States and its NATO allies, Kyiv says it will reclaim all occupied territory and expel all Russian soldiers.

“Our proposals for the demilitarization and disarmament of regime-controlled areas, eliminating the threats to Russia’s security, including our new territory, are well known to the enemy,” Lavrov told state news agency Tass.

The point is simple: stick with them [nossas propostas] for your goodness. Otherwise, the Russian army will decide the problem.
sergei Lavrov, Chancellor of Russia

Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, describing it as a “special operation” to “disarm” and disarm Ukraine, which the West branded as a threatening pawn to Russia.

Kyiv and the West say Putin’s invasion amounts to an imperialist land grab. The United States and its allies imposed extensive sanctions on Russia for the invasion and sent billions of dollars in aid to the Ukrainian government.

Last week, during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington, the US announcement of additional $1.85 billion in military aid to Ukraine, including the transfer of the Patriot Air Defense System, angered Moscow.

“It is no secret that the strategic goal of the United States and its NATO allies is to defeat Russia on the battlefield as a mechanism to significantly weaken or even destroy our country,” Lavrov told TASS.

Although Moscow has planned a swift operation to defeat its neighbor, the war is now in its 11th month and there are many embarrassing Russian comebacks on the battlefield.

In the latest attack to expose flaws in Russian air defense, a drone believed to have come from Ukraine entered Russian airspace hundreds of kilometers on Monday, causing a deadly explosion at the home base of strategic bombers.

At the moment, the most intense fighting is taking place in the eastern states of Donetsk and Luhansk, which together form the industrial zone of Donbass. Russia claimed in September to annex them, along with the southern provinces of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, but it does not fully control either of them.

In a video message released late Monday night, Zelenskiy described the situation on the front lines in Donbass as “difficult and painful”.