Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov condemned the West’s “unprecedented Russophobia” at the UN General Assembly on Saturday, while his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi said the priority now should be to facilitate talks to end the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine and respond to “legitimate security concerns of all parties,” AFP, Reuters and Agerpres write.

“Declaring himself the winner of the Cold War, Washington established himself almost as God’s messenger on Earth, without any obligations, but with the sacred right to act with impunity anywhere and anytime,” Lavrov accused in his speech at the General. UN Assembly.

“Official Russophobia in the West is unprecedented, its scale is grotesque. They do not hesitate to declare their intention not only to inflict a military defeat on our country (in Ukraine), but also to destroy Russia,” the Russian minister said.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Ukraine and Russia not to allow a war between them to “spill over”, and emphasized that “the priority is to promote peace negotiations”.

“The fundamental solution is to address the legitimate security concerns of all parties and build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture,” the Chinese diplomat said.

The last face-to-face Russian-Ukrainian talks took place in Istanbul at the end of March and raised some hope that a solution could be reached to end the armed conflict sparked by Russia’s invasion last month. However, the talks between the two sides were later suspended.

While Kyiv motivates its refusal to negotiate with crimes committed by Russian forces, Moscow believes that Western countries, especially the United States, forced Ukraine to stop negotiations with Russia, hoping that by supporting the Ukrainian army with weapons and ammunition, it will finally be able to achieve a military victory. over Russia

In recent weeks, this expectation has yielded certain results: the Ukrainian army’s counteroffensive led to the liberation of thousands of square kilometers of Russian-occupied territories. However, the latter responded with referendums on the accession of fully or partially occupied Ukrainian regions, which will end on Tuesday, and President Vladimir Putin’s decree on the mobilization of 300,000 reservists.