The State Department’s claims of Russia lying about Mariupol being taken are proof of that, the Foreign Ministry says
The United States is deliberately spreading disinformation about the state of affairs in Ukraine in an attempt to confuse local residents and disrupt negotiations, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RT on Friday, amid Moscow’s ongoing offensive in Ukraine.
Zakharova was asked to comment on the remarks of her US counterpart, State Department spokesman Ned Price, who on Thursday called Russian statements about taking control of Mariupol “disinformation” from a “well-worn playbook.”
Continuing a series of mutual accusations of lies, Zakharova claimed that “disinformation is being handled directly by the State Department.”
“For what? There are several reasons. Well, probably, in order to completely disorient the citizens of Ukraine, those people who are now there, to place under question any possibility of any negotiation process and, of course, to make any negotiated settlement simply impossible and meaningless,” Zakharova said, adding that Russia is very familiar with these “US tactics.”
Commenting on the situation regarding the besieged Azovstal plant in Mariupol, Zakharova claimed that if the State Department was at all interested in the fate of the Ukrainians who remain there, it was interested only from one point of view: “How to ensure that these people stay there” without making use of the opportunities provided by Russia to leave the premises.
“Everything the Western world, the Western community is doing is poised to ensure that the situation escalates further and does not get a chance to calm down. Escalation, escalation, escalation,” the spokeswoman claimed, adding that, while making such statements, the West keeps announcing additional assistance to the “so-called Ukrainian armed forces.”
“The United States of America does not need peace in Ukraine, and the more such statements we hear, the more evidence we have to prove this,” she concluded.
Since the launch of Russia’s military offensive on Ukraine, Moscow and Kiev have accused each other of hampering civilian evacuations, as well as committing war crimes and violating international law. Several rounds of peace negotiations have apparently not been fruitful.
Russia attacked its neighbor following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered Minsk Protocol was designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
Western countries condemned Russia’s offensive and imposed hard-hitting sanctions on Moscow. Russian officials consider these restrictions unlawful and unjustified.
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