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Posted on 07/25/2022 8:39:12 AM PDT by tlozo
Russia appears to have reversed course, with the country’s top diplomat now saying that Moscow’s overarching goal is to topple the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as Russian artillery barrages and air strikes continue to pummel cities across Ukraine.
The remark from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov comes amid Ukraine’s efforts to resume grain exports from its Black Sea ports, something that would help ease global food shortages, under a new deal tested by a Russian strike on Odesa over the weekend.
Speaking to envoys at an Arab League summit in Cairo late Sunday, Lavrov said Moscow is determined to help Ukrainians “liberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime.”
Lavrov accused Kiev and “its Western allies” of spouting propaganda intended to ensure that Ukraine “becomes the eternal enemy of Russia.”
“Russian and Ukrainian people would continue to live together, we will certainly help Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical,” he said.
Lavrov’s remarks contrasted sharply with the Kremlin’s line early in the war, when Russian officials repeatedly emphasized that they weren’t seeking to overthrow Zelensky’s government.
Lavrov argued that Russia was ready to negotiate a deal to end hostilities in March when Kyiv changed tack and declared its intention to rout Russia on the battlefield, adding that the West has encouraged Ukraine to keep fighting.
“The West insists that Ukraine must not start negotiations until Russia is defeated on the battlefield,” Lavrov said.
It was not yet clear when grain shipments would resume following Russia and Ukraine signing identical agreements with the United Nations and Turkey on Friday in Istanbul. The deals are aimed at clearing the way for the shipment of millions of tons of desperately needed Ukrainian grain, as well as the export of Russian grain and fertilizer.
The Kremlin insisted Monday that the attack on the port of Odesa over the weekend targeted military assets and would not affect grain shipping.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the strike had to do “exclusively with the military infrastructure.”
“This is in no way related to the infrastructure involved in fulfilling the agreements and exporting grain. So this can’t and shouldn’t affect the start of the shipment process in any way,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin spokesman also said that Moscow has no interest in halting all gas supplies to Europe and that recent restrictions on the flow of Russian gas to European countries “are simply the consequences of restrictions the Europeans have imposed, and the Europeans themselves are suffering from these restrictions.”
“Russia is a responsible gas supplier, and no matter what anyone says, the European Commission, in European capitals, in the US, Russia has been and continues to be a country that to a large extent guarantees Europe’s energy security,” Peskov said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s presidential office said Monday that at least two civilians were killed and another 10 were wounded in the latest Russian shelling during the last 24 hours.
In the eastern Donetsk region, the focus of the Russian offensive, Russian artillery struck Avdiivka, Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka. An airstrike on Bakhmut damaged at least five houses.
“The Russians are using the scorched earth tactics across the entire Donbas, they fire from the ground and from the air to wipe off entire cities,” Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in televised remarks.
The Russians also struck the Kharkiv region. In the city of Chuhuiv, a Russian strike ruined the building of a local club and rescue workers removed several people from under the debris.
Kharkiv Governor Oleh Sinyehubov denounced the attack as “senseless barbarity,” saying that “it looks like a deadly lottery when no one knows where the next strike will come and the entire region is dangerous for living.”
In the Dnipro region, a 10-year-old girl was wounded by shelling, and a 7-year-old child was wounded in the Russian shelling of the Mykolaiv region.
Maybe Joe Wilson can report to Congress that Zelensky is perusing “yellow cake”, then right after that write an op-end in the NYT saying Putin lied, people died. LOL
It’s been 5 months already.
Moscow’s goal is to topple US/NATO's Zelensky Ukrainian government
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They didn’t change their goal. They just lied to everyone about what it really was.
Putin should not waste time on Zelensky. Just take out the root of all evil, The New York Times, and we will have peace on earth. /spit
Why any of the apologists here have EVER believed a word out of the Russian liars is beyond me.
Of course they always intended to topple the government. Now they’re in a pickle so they are SAYing it as a threat to get NATO to back down.
If you give these murderous pigs an inch they’ll be breathing down our necks and telling folks here how we attacked them.
Slaughter these evil bastards while we have the chance.
This was always the goal, very obvious. They just change the goalposts and make up a bunch of random excuses depending on if they are winning/losing
They're lying. Putin was lying from the start. His goal is to build a Russian Empire as large as he possibly can, with himself as the Emperor.
And once Russia grinds to a victory, every Ukrainian will want to kill every Russian pig for the next 500 years. Just like they hated the Russians before this.
And when Putin dies or is deposed the idiots will lose Ukraine again just like they have before.
Of course they are lying.
They are in an alliance with China.
They’ve promised each other to pin down the West so they can seize Asia and Europe. And destroy the United States.
But we have morons here who think Putin is saving the World.
Sounds more like you were the problem, not your boss...no surprise here.
Yes but Tucker Carlson will have on Douglas MacGregor to tell us that our plan to invade Russia forced poor old Vlad to change his wonderful limited plan.
The story keeps changing but the Moscow Roses keep eating each new turd.
Prior to this war Russia demanded we withdraw from most NATO countries.
The real goal is to take Europe while the Chinese take Taiwan, Australia, Philippines and many others.
And while our economy crumbles and we face nuclear war these morons will be saying (as they already do say) that none of those counties (and ultimately the USA) are worth defending.
About time. Steeled by the WEF and DC Zelinsky is more belligerent than ever. The denazification can’t succeed without removing the government the Galicians control.
“Murderous pigs, we need to slaughter them, etc etc”.
Real question. You are always really over the top with your venomous rhetoric. Would you tell us where your deep hate of anything Russia comes from? It seems very personal or something.
“They just lied to everyone about what it really was.”
Not sure on this. By Russia recovering the property they once controlled until 1991, they will re-gain all the goods and bads within the region. And one of the goods at this time is Ukraine is a natural resource-rich country that has large reserves of minerals like uranium and titanium. As Europe’s top producer of uranium and with vast deposits of titanium, Ukraine ranks high in the world for its key resources.
However, Factory #906 near the city of Kamianske, was at one time the largest producer of uranium dust in Europe. But they have a problem with contamination as the roughly 40 million tons of radioactive waste stored there poses a significant danger not only for the city, but also for the Dnipro River that runs through it. So, cheap and easy won’t be there with the decon needs.
The reason Putin wants Zelenskyy out is because too many cooks spoil the broth. The Ukraine has a lot of different things that are prosperous besides uranium one of the biggest being natural gas and petroleum not to mention grain and other metals. So he needs the people already there to work it and Zelenskyy gone. Control.
wy69
Sergey Lavrov tells Arab League envoys... to believe me now, that I was lying before.
“Russian and Ukrainian people would continue to live together” - because there will be no such thing anymore as a Ukrainian, they are all going to be Russian, or else.
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