Sergey Lavrov dismisses Ukraine's allegation that Russia attacking its own cities

On the 134th day of the ravaging war between Moscow and Kyiv in Eastern Europe, the Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov stated on Wednesday that the allegations made by Ukraine about the Russian troops attacking its own towns and cities are false. Lavrov said in a response to a TASS query during a news conference held after meetings with the senior diplomat for Vietnam, Bui Thanh Son, “In a word, they are lying. Facts are well-known, our Defense Ministry presents facts on a daily basis".  

The West needs to acknowledge its responsibility for the killings of civilians in Donbass and Ukraine, the Russian foreign minister said. Further, Lavrov remarked, “Western countries certainly should recognize their responsibility, regardless of what (Ukraine’s President Vladimir) Zelensky and his team say,” Tass reported. “Generally speaking, it is state terrorism," he added.  

Western nations "lie" on behalf of the Ukrainian government: Lavrov

In addition to this, according to a TASS report on June 23, Sergey Lavrov said that the Western nations "lie" on behalf of the Ukrainian government. He asserted, "What surprises me more is not the lies that we hear from Kyiv every hour of every day, but how Kyiv’s backers have started to play this game of lies". The Russian Foreign Minister went on to say, “They (Western nations) are covering up for it whenever they feel like it. Not just these days". On June 23, a portion of this minister's interview with Belarusian state television was released on the foreign ministry's website, as per media reports.  

According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the Ukrainian Armed Forces used Tu-143 Reis unmanned aerial vehicles and Tochka-U missiles with cluster bombs to attack residential neighbourhoods in the Russian cities of Belgorod and Kursk early on Sunday morning.  

Sergey Lavrov visited the foreign minister of Vietnam

Meanwhile, in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Bui Thanh Son, the foreign minister of Vietnam on Wednesday. Lavrov was scheduled to meet with Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh during his two-day visit to Vietnam. 

The visit occurred ten years after Russia and Vietnam transformed their ties into a comprehensive strategic alliance, as per the Associated Press report. During the Vietnam War against the capitalist south and its American and other Western allied nations, Russia was a staunch supporter of the communist government in Hanoi. 

Lavrov will go to Indonesia later this week to attend a gathering of foreign ministers from the Group of 20 major affluent and developing nations. 

(Image: AP)