Lavrov: Let NATO Fight, Russia is Prepared

By Staff, Agencies

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced on Tuesday that his country is prepared for NATO to continue to fight in Ukraine.

Several days earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg rejected any moves to “freeze” the conflict, despite mounting Ukrainian losses.

“If NATO, through the mouth of Stoltenberg, once again declares that they are against freezing, as they say, the conflict in Ukraine, then they want to fight,” Lavrov told a press conference. “Well, let them fight, we are ready for this, we have long understood the goals of NATO in the situation around Ukraine, which have been formed for many years.”

Officials in Moscow have long accused the US and its NATO allies of arming Ukraine and using the country to instigate conflict with Russia.

While Lavrov stressed that some Western leaders are beginning to “sober up” about the nature of the conflict, Kiev has demanded that the weapons keep flowing. “Nothing will be enough, however much they send, because if there is no victory, that means it was not enough,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said in an interview on Monday.

With Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive faltering against a “well-prepared” Russian defense, Stoltenberg told reporters on Monday that NATO states would soon send equipment to help Ukrainian troops clear Russian minefields. He did not say; however, what kind of equipment would be sent, or which members would provide it.