Russia’s ultimate goal is to overthrow Ukraine’s president, Lavrov says – National

Russia appears to have turned around after the country’s top diplomat said Moscow’s overriding goal was to overthrow the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy while Russian artillery fire and airstrikes continue to hit cities across Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s remark comes amid Ukraine’s efforts to resume grain exports from its Black Sea ports, which would help ease global food shortages, under a new deal shattered over the weekend by a Russian strike in Odessa was tested.

Speaking to envoys at an Arab League summit in Cairo late Sunday, Lavrov said Moscow was determined to help Ukrainians “unburden themselves of the burden of this totally unacceptable regime.”

Lavrov accused Kyiv and “its western allies” of spreading propaganda designed to ensure Ukraine “becomes Russia’s eternal enemy.”

“The Russian and Ukrainian people would continue to live together, we will certainly help the 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 stressed that they were not trying to overthrow Zelenskyy’s government.

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Lavrov argued that Russia was ready to negotiate an agreement to end hostilities in March, when Kyiv changed course and declared its intention to route Russia on the battlefield, adding that the West had encouraged Ukraine 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 deliveries would resume after Russia and Ukraine signed identical deals with the United Nations and Turkey in Istanbul on Friday. The deals aim to pave the way for the shipment of millions of tons of much-needed Ukrainian grain, as well as for the export of Russian grain and fertilizers.

The Kremlin insisted on Monday that the attack on the port of Odessa over the weekend was aimed at military installations and would not affect grain shipping.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the strike was “exclusively related to military infrastructure.”

“This has nothing to do with the infrastructure associated with fulfilling the agreements and exporting grain. So this cannot and should not affect the start of the shipping process in any way,” said Peskov.

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The Kremlin spokesman also said Moscow has no interest in halting all gas supplies to Europe and that recent restrictions on Russian gas flow to European countries are “simply the consequences of restrictions imposed by Europeans, and Europeans themselves are suffering from 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 is a country that largely guarantees Europe’s energy security,” Peskov said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Presidential Office said on Monday that at least two civilians were killed and another 10 wounded in the latest Russian shelling over the past 24 hours.

In the eastern Donetsk region, the focus of the Russian offensive, Russian artillery hit Avdiivka, Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka. An air raid on Bakhmut damaged at least five homes.

“Russians are using scorched earth tactics throughout Donbass, firing from the ground and from the air to wipe out entire cities,” Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a televised address.

The Russians also attacked the Kharkiv region. In the city of Chuhuiv, a Russian strike destroyed the building of a local club and rescue workers pulled several people out from under the rubble.

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Kharkiv Governor Oleh Sinyehubov denounced the attack as “senseless barbarism” and said that “it looks like a deadly lottery when nobody knows where the next strike will come from and the whole region is life-threatening.”

A 10-year-old girl was wounded by shelling in the Dnipro region, and a seven-year-old child was wounded in Russian shelling of the Mykolayiv region.