Russia: War With West ‘Almost a Real One’

JOHANNESBURG (Dispatches) -- Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday warned the war between Russia and the West is no longer hybrid but is “almost a real one”, as he blasted Ukraine’s allies for sending weapons to the war-torn country.
Western nations have pledged to send billions of pounds worth of arms to Kyiv and Poland’s prime minister said Monday his government would ask Germany for permission to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine – and planned to send them whether or not Berlin agreed.
“We will seek this approval,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters.
“Even if we didn’t get such an approval in the end, we will give our tanks to Ukraine anyway -- within a small coalition of countries, even if Germany isn’t in that coalition,” Morawiecki said.
Poland already announced earlier this month that it was ready to deliver 14 Leopard tanks to Kyiv but was waiting for a clear statement from Berlin authorizing the transfer.
Berlin has insisted on the need for all allies to work together.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman reiterated that stance Monday, saying the government “does not rule out” the tanks’ transfer but added: “It has not yet decided.”
Haunted by its post-war guilt, Germany has always treaded lightly and quietly on the world stage when it comes to conflicts.
Under Germany’s war weapons control act, Poland -- and other purchasing countries -- requires Berlin’s approval to hand over the Leopard tanks to Ukraine because they are German-made.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky desperately wants the German-made Leopard 2 tank to break through Russian lines and recapture territory this year.
On Friday, some 50 nations agreed to provide Kyiv with billions of dollars’ worth of military hardware, including armored vehicles and munitions

needed to push back Russian forces.

Lavrov said the war in Ukraine is a “real war” that the West has been “plotting” against Russia.

“When we speak about what is happening in Ukraine – it is a war, not a hybrid one, almost a real war, that the West has been plotting for a long time against Russia,” he said.

“The goal is to destroy everything Russian, from language to culture, that has been in Ukraine for centuries and to prohibit people from speaking their mother tongue,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov’s comments during a visit to South Africa came as Poland’s government pushed its Western allies to move faster on supplying Kyiv with more military hardware to thwart Russia’s operation.

Previously, Polish officials have indicated that Finland and Denmark were ready to join Warsaw in sending Leopards to Ukraine, while the UK has pledged to send some of its Challenger tanks.

Lavrov said Moscow was willing to negotiate with Ukraine in the early months of the war but the U.S. and other Western nations advised Kyiv against it.

“It is well known that we supported the proposal of the Ukrainian side to negotiate early in the special military operation and by the end of March, the two delegations agreed on the principle to settle this conflict,” he said.

“It is well known and was published openly that our American, British, and some European colleagues told Ukraine that it is too early to deal, and the arrangement which was almost agreed was never revisited by the Kyiv regime.”

Lavrov is in Pretoria for talks with his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor as Russia pushes to strengthen ties with Africa’s most developed country and an historical ally amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

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Russia: War With West ‘Almost a Real One’