Lavrov Reaffirms Russia’s Demands to End the War as Ukraine Crumbles Under Withering Attacks
Like Titanic passengers thrashing frantically in the icy Atlantic waters grasping for something to keep them afloat in order to stay alive, US and NATO officials are seizing on rumors and innuendos in a hopeless effort to salvage their Ukrainian project to destroy Russia. Russian President Putin held two important national security confabs last week and Foreign Minister Lavrov was not present at either. That ignited a wild-fire of speculation in the West, which ranged from unsourced claims that Lavrov was mad at Putin and was being pushed out of his leadership role to the suggestion that Moscow’s fear of a decapitation strike by the West was the real reason that Lavrov was absent from these meetings.
The West received a wake-up call over the weekend that dashed their dream of Russia imploding from none other than Sergei Lavrov:
Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrovhas said he is ready to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio following reports of a rift with President Vladimir Putin.
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio and I understand the need for regular communication,” the Russian Foreign Minister told Russia‘s Ria state agency on Sunday, weeks after efforts to organise a summit between the Russian and US leaders were put on ice.
Lavrov said he is ready to discuss mending bilateral ties as well as the war in Ukraine, repeating that peace cannot be achieved without “taking Russian interests into account”, a phrase Moscow has used to signal it is standing firm in its maximalist demands for Ukraine.
The New Indian Express provided a more accurate translation of Lavrov’s remarks:
Lavrov said he is ready to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio but maintained that ending the conflict is impossible without taking Russian interests into account and eradicating its root causes.
Once again, Moscow reiterates that this is not a war about seizing territory… It is a war to eliminate the threat that NATO poses to Russia. While Moscow is keeping the door open for diplomatic negotiations, it has intensified its strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and is systematically turning off the lights and the heat across central and western Ukraine. It is even affecting Volodymyr Zelensky:
According to the Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine, the repair of Ukrainian power generation is significantly hindered due to extensive destruction. He reported that:
All thermal power plants of the company “Centrenergo” have stopped generating electricity. This happened due to a new tactic involving strikes with ballistic missiles together with drones on both generation facilities and distribution systems.
“There is a power deficit, a shortage of spare parts. Under these conditions, hourly power outages are inevitable, and they have already been introduced in most regions. The most difficult situation is in Kharkov, Sumy, and Poltava regions. Up to three rounds of hourly outages are in effect simultaneously there. In other regions, hourly outages reach two and a half rounds,” Nekrasov stated.
Sustained outages of electricity will likely compel a large number of the residents of Kiev to seek refuge in cities and towns west of Kiev.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian volunteers are lining up enthusiastically to join the war. Here is a short video of one new joyful recruit:
I think the technical term for this is cannon fodder. Men like this poor soul are being stuffed into uniforms and sent to the front without any substantive training… And for what? In 2025 alone, Ukraine is on pace to accumulate 500,000 casualties — most of those KIA — by years end. They have suffered similar losses in 2023 and 2024. So it is no exaggeration to report that Ukraine has incurred more than 1.5 million casualties in the last 35 months. Consider this… Ukraine needs to recruit at least 40,000 new soldiers per month just to replace those killed and wounded along the front. At some point, and I don’t know when that moment will come, the Ukrainian army will break. Western analysts who insist that this war will go on for years simply are not very good at math, nor do they understand what is required to produce a soldier capable of fighting effectively on the front.
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