Russia foreign minister slams ‘deaf’ Liz Truss after their Moscow meeting
Russia’s foreign minister has launched a stinging attack on Liz Truss after their meeting in Moscow today, labelling the UK’s foreign secretary as “deaf” and “selfish”.
Truss met with Sergey Lavrov in Moscow to discuss the crisis in Ukraine, with the foreign secretary saying the UK wants to provide a “path of diplomacy” to de-escalate the situation.
Truss also brushed away suggestions that the Kremlin has no intention of further aggression against its neighbour in a post-meeting press conference and said “I can’t see any other reason for 100,000 troops stationed on the Ukrainian border apart from threatening Ukraine”.
Efforts to bring the crisis to a peaceful resolution have so far failed, with the US refusing to grant Russia’s request of barring Ukraine from ever joining Nato.
“Fundamentally a war in Ukraine will be disastrous for the Russian and Ukrainian people for European security,” she said.
Lavrov said Truss was unresponsive to his arguments in their meeting, while also bemoaning “indoctrinated” and “selfish” western politicians.
“I’m rather disappointed that it was a bit like talking to a deaf person,” he said.
“It’s like they’re listening to us, but not hearing.”
Lavrov belittled her further in their meeting, with Russian media reporting that he asked the foreign secretary if she recognises “Russia’s sovereignty over the Rostov and Voronezh regions”.
Truss reportedly said the UK would “never” recognise Russian sovereignty in these areas, before the British ambassador informed her that the regions are in fact in Russia and not Ukraine.
Truss’ Russia trip comes as Boris Johnson made a whistle stop tour of European allies today to discuss the situation in Ukraine, with the PM meeting Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Warsaw.
Speaking to Sky News this afternoon, Johnson said: “I think everybody should be in no doubt that if Russia was to be so foolish to make the mistake of invading any part of Ukraine, the Ukrainian army, which themselves number about 200,000, they will fight. There will be bloodshed and I think everybody in Russia must understand that.
“The Kremlin should understand that if they want less Nato on their western borders this is the wrong way to go about it.”
The UK has threatened to hit major Russian businesses and Kremlin-linked oligarchs with tough financial sanctions if Putin invades Ukraine.
Number 10 has said a list of people and firms to sanction has been written up and will be enforced the moment Russia escalates its aggression against its neighbour.
US President Joe Biden also said this week that an invasion would mean a cancellation of the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, after he met with chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington, DC.