“During the negotiations between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov justified a full -scale invasion of Russia, shifting responsibility for the war to Ukraine and the West.”, – WRITE: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: Isw
Details: In their report, analysts point out that during the negotiations in Saudi Arabia, the Russian delegation stated the need to eliminate the so -called “root causes” of war, among which the Kremlin traditionally calls NATO expansion and, as if discriminating the Ukrainian government of ethnic Russians, as well in Ukraine.
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ISW experts emphasize that such rhetoric is part of a wider Kremlin information campaign, which tries to present a full -scale invasion of Russia as a forced step in response to Ukraine and the West. Thus, Moscow seeks to justify its aggression, replacing the real causes of the war of propaganda theses.
Literally: “Such statements deny the fact that Zelensky ran and joined the slogan under the slogan of termination of the continued conflict and tried to negotiate with Putin at the beginning of his presidential term, as well as that Putin refused to stop continuous violations of his puppet conditions of the Minsk agreements.”
Details: Lavrov also repeated Putin’s long -standing demands at the end of 2021, including the neutrality of Ukraine, the rejection of joining NATO, limiting the number of the Ukrainian army and the actual removal of the Ukrainian government from power.
Lavrov, in particular, denied Russia’s responsibility for its purposeful and many years of attempts to destroy Ukrainian energy infrastructure. He argued that Russian troops did not intend to harm it, despite numerous evidence that Russian troops systematically strike with high -precision weapons on the energy objects of Ukraine.
Literally: Russia has also repeatedly experimented with various combined attacks aimed at overcoming Ukrainian air defense and the defeat of the planned goals.
During the bilateral meeting, US officials offered a Russian delegation to the moratorium on the strikes on the energy facilities of Russia and Ukraine, to which Lavrov replied that Russian troops allegedly strike only on objects that “directly support” Ukrainian military “.
Details: ISW emphasizes that Lavrov deliberately diminishes the scale of Russian blows on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which the Russian troops have carried out every winter from the beginning of a full -scale invasion.
Key conclusions ISW for February 18:
- Russian and American officials met in Saudi Arabia on February 18 for bilateral negotiations on war in Ukraine. However, according to the estimates of Western intelligence and US officials (according to the ancient ISW evaluation), Russia does not show any signs of readiness to make significant concessions about Ukraine.
- Many recent statements of Russian high -ranking officials show that the Kremlin is not interested in bona fide negotiations and continues to strive for the destruction of the Ukrainian state. At the same time, Moscow does not show any public signs of readiness for significant compromises.
- At a bilateral meeting, Russian officials continued to demonstrate the Kremlin’s reluctance to conduct real negotiations and emphasized the desire to achieve their maximalist goals in Ukraine.
- Zelensky, unlike Kremlin officials, continues to demonstrate Ukraine’s readiness for compromises to achieve a long cessation of war.
- Russian officials in Saudi Arabia probably have begun an long attempt to persuade the United States to accept Russian proposals for economic and investment measures instead of Russia’s real concessions in Ukraine.
- In particular, Dmitriev tried to present economic incentives proposed by Russia as more beneficial to the United States than for Russia itself. However, in fact, Moscow urgently needs economic assistance to avoid a crisis that is coming in 2025-2026.
- US officials continue to meet European leaders to coordinate Ukraine.
- Meanwhile, Russian troops advanced in the areas of Borova, Toretsk and the Great Novosilka.
- The Russian “War” and the former instructor of the Storm-Z unit complains that the lack of response of the Russian military command to system problems limits the promotion of Russian troops near Pokrovsk.
- The Russian edition of Sota reported on February 18 that the chairman of the Republic of Mordovia Artem Zdunov announced an increase in lump sum payments to conscripts who sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, from 400 thousand rubles ($ 4 369) to 1.1 million rubles ($ 12 015).
- At the same time, Russian troops continue to send to the front of wounded and unusable soldiers, trying to solve the problem of lack of personnel.