The West is only prolonging the bloodshed in Ukraine by supplying Kiev with weapons and waging a proxy war against Moscow, Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, said on Tuesday. The statement came the same day US President Joe Biden vowed to support Ukraine for “as long as it takes.”
“The prospects of peace will be closer when the flooding of Ukraine with weapons stops… and when they realistically listen to our concerns,” Nebenzia told reporters at a press conference. He urged Ukraine’s Western backers to stop “using Ukrainians to wage a proxy war against us.”
Asked by a reporter if a peaceful resolution to the conflict could happen in 2023, the diplomat replied: “We all hope for peace.”
Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine nearly a year ago, citing the need to protect the people of Donbass and Kiev’s failure to implement the 2014-2015 Minsk peace accords. Many Western countries and NATO members have since supplied Ukraine with heavy weapons, including anti-armor systems, multiple rocket launchers, howitzers and combat drones. Last month, the US, Britain and Germany pledged for the first time to deliver tanks.