Jen Psaki can pick up a few pointers from Sergei Lavrov. When people ask you about things you don’t officially want to talk about, pretend it all happened in some twilight zone reality a few universes back. According to Sergei, Russia “did not attack Ukraine” and reporters should get a grip about the bombing of Mariupol hospital. The “pathetic outcry” is misdirected, he claims. The biggest problem seems to be that he believes these things. Folks are suggesting his cornflakes are dusted with some heavy-duty military grade psychedelics.
Lavrov is hallucinating again
When Sergei Lavrov sat down in Ankara, Turkey to negotiate with Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, it was clearly obvious the two don’t see eye to eye on anything. They don’t even seem to be on the same planet.
When it comes to defending Vladimir Putin, the Russian Foreign Minister acts more like a meth-addicted attack squirrel. Kuleba boldly declares Ukraine “will not surrender” to Russia so the “negotiations made no progress towards a ceasefire.” How do you deal with an opponent who won’t accept reality.
“We are not planning to attack other countries. We didn’t attack Ukraine, either.” Lavrov actually expects the rest of the world to believe that. Oh, and by the way, that so called “maternity hospital?” According to Sergei, it’s “not the first time we see pathetic outcries concerning the so-called atrocities perpetrated by the Russian military.”
You bet the place was targeted. They blew it up because “it had been taken over by Ukrainian radicals.” Mothers? What mothers? All “the “mothers and nurses were chased out of there.” The photos say otherwise.
Images “from the senseless shelling, which saw three people killed including one child and dozens injured, show pregnant mothers and nurses being rushed from the building on stretchers among the rubble.” So what, Lavrov challenges.
“A few days ago, at a meeting of the UN Security Council, the Russian delegation presented the facts that this maternity hospital had long been captured by the Azov battalion and other radicals, all women in labor, all nurses, and in general, all the staff were expelled from there. It was the base of the ultra-radical Azov battalion.” In his dreams.
Special operations
Lavrov accuses Europe and America for “stoking up tensions.” All Russia is doing is conduct some “special operations” in Ukraine. It’s for everyone’s good. If Ukrainian civilians are getting hurt it’s only because they’re being used as human shields, he insists.
To put this in perspective, it would be the same as an American President sending troops into Sonora, Mexico to “protect” the Mexican Riviera from Nogales to Mazatlan from the Sinaloa Cartel.
Then there are those “humanitarian corridors.” Lavrov insists they’re being kept open. What he isn’t saying is that the “evacuation of civilians” isn’t as safe as advertised. Russian forces keep shelling of the escape routes. The Kremlin isn’t happy that the west is shipping in weapons.
“We see how dangerously our Western colleagues, including in the European Union, are acting now, which, in violation of all its so-called principles and values, encourages the supply of deadly weapons to Ukraine.”
Ukraine is still at the bargaining table, even though it doesn’t seem to be working. Kuleba blasted the “difficult” meeting, accusing Lavrov of bringing “traditional narratives” about Ukraine to the negotiating table. By traditional narrative he means anti-nationalist prejudice. The Kremlin is on a full-scale operation to “demilitarize” and “de-Nazify” the country.
Kuleba knew going in his chances were “limited” and that success depends on “what instructions and directives Lavrov is under.” Vlad just fired 8 of his generals for feeding him misinformation and the diplomat is terrified of being Gulaged in Siberia himself for screwing up.