EU Defense
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EU lavede en "alvorlig kovending" ved at forvaldne sig til en militærorganisation agerende i Washington og NATOs interesser, sagde Ruslands udenrigsminister Sergey Lavrov i mandags i et interview med russiske medier. Han citerede bemærkningen fra EUs chef for udenrigspolitik,Josep Borrell som han lavede i lørdags.

Den europæiske embedsmand sagde at konflikten i Ukraine "vil blive vundet på kamppladsen" da han annoncerede den europæiske militærhjælp til Kiev. Lavrov kaldte erklæring for "uhyrlig." Lavrov sagde til Rossiya 24 nyhedskanalen:
"Når en diplomatisk chef ... siger at en vis konflikt kun kan løses ved militær handling,...Nå, det må være noget personligt. Han må have fortalt sig eller talt uden at tænke, ved at lave en erklæring som ingen spurgte ham om at lave. Men det er en uhyrlig udtalelse."
EU har lavet en bemærkelsesværdig kovending i dets holdning til Rusland fordi vestlige magter er rasende på Moskva for at forsvare sine vitale interesser i Ukraine istedet for at acceptere en underdanig rolle i den Washington dominerede "regelbaserede orden" sagde Ruslands udenrigsminister Sergey Lavrov.


Kommentar: Delvis oversat til dansk af Sott.net fra: EU morphed into a military organization - Lavrov


Western nations acting in pursuit of American interests were trying to turn Ukraine into "a foothold for final suppression of Russia," Lavrov said. After Moscow used force to counter that threat, European nations made a rapid shift in their attitude towards Russia. Now it "reflects spite and fury" towards the country. The dramatic change is evidence that the conflict in Ukraine is not about Ukraine, Lavrov believes. He said:
"Western propaganda shifted gear into depicting Russia as pure evil and [Ukraine] as pure good. The current Ukrainian regime is presumably a beacon of democracy, justice, freedom that is drawn to everything European, to the values that Europe claims it always adhered to."
Neither is true, Lavrov argued. Ukraine is a hotbed of radical nationalism while Western powers easily break any norms when it fits them, while telling others to comply. He offered as an example of double standards:
"Kosovo can be recognized as independent without a referendum. Crimea cannot, despite holding a referendum observed by [many international monitors].

"In Iraq, 10,000 kilometers away from the US, they imagined some threat to their national security. They bombed it, found no threat. And didn't even say they were sorry. But when right at our border they grow neo-Nazi ultra-radicals, create dozens of biolabs ... working on bioweapons, as documents prove, we are told we are not allowed to react to those threats."
Russia launched a large-scale offensive against Ukraine in late February, following Ukraine's failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia'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.

Russia 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 rebel regions by force.