The G7 condemns Moscow's "escalation", and Lavrov rejects Western accusations

Russia threatens to defend its "new regions" with nuclear weapons

Lavrov responds to Western accusations during a meeting at the United Nations headquarters to discuss the war in Ukraine.

AFP

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday that any weapons in Moscow's arsenal, including strategic nuclear weapons, could be used to defend the new territories joining Russia from Ukraine.

While the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven condemned Moscow's "escalation" of the conflict in Ukraine and vowed to impose "new sanctions", Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected Western accusations.

Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian Security Council, stated that referendums organized by the Russian-appointed and separatist authorities in the vast swaths of Russian-controlled Ukrainian territory would be held, and that there was "no turning back".

"Russia will accept the annexation of the republics (Donetsk and Luhansk) in the Donbass and other territories," he added.

He explained that the Russian armed forces will greatly enhance the protection of all territories, adding, "Russia has announced that to achieve this protection it can use mobilization capabilities and any Russian weapons as well, including strategic nuclear weapons and weapons based on new physical principles."

It is widely expected that the referendums, scheduled for Friday in the Russian-controlled parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and part of the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine, will produce results overwhelmingly in favor of joining Russia.

Kyiv and its Western allies described the referendums, which were announced to be organized a few days ago under Russian military control, as sham.

Moscow does not fully control any of the four regions, which are expected to be annexed, but only about 60% of the Donetsk region and 66% of the Zaporizhia region.

Medvedev has issued strongly worded statements on the West and Ukraine in recent months, underlining his transformation from a Western-minded liberal when he was president from 2008 to 2012 to a geopolitical hawk.

The Kremlin denied a report that up to one million reservists could be called up during the partial mobilization announced by Putin this week.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the report in the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which had been stripped of its license, was false.

According to the now-defunct Novaya Gazeta, Putin gave the Defense Ministry carte blanche to mobilize up to a million men.

The newspaper reported that although Putin's decision stipulated this in Article VII, the material was later classified as "for official use only."

And the newspaper attributed information to sources in the Russian presidential office in its report.

This comes at a time when the General Staff of the Russian Army announced yesterday that about 10 thousand people volunteered on their own in the framework of mobilization to fight in Ukraine, after President Putin announced in this regard.

On the other hand, the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven condemned Russia's "deliberate escalation, including the partial mobilization of reservists and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric", in a statement published on Wednesday night, Thursday, after a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

The ministers of Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and Britain, as well as European Union Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, also denounced the "mock referendums in the sovereign territory of Ukraine", announced by the pro-Russian authorities in the Donbass region.

They considered that the vote "cannot be free or fair" with the presence of Russian forces.

The statement stressed that the Group of Seven "will impose new, targeted sanctions" and "will continue economic and political pressure on Russia."

"We will study and adopt new restrictive measures on the personal and sectoral levels," Borrell said.

The ministers also reiterated their commitment to "finish preparations" for a ceiling on the prices of oil imported from Russia.

In conclusion, they called on Russia to "return control" of the Zaporizhia nuclear plant to Ukraine.

For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected yesterday before the Security Council the Western accusations of Russia regarding Ukraine, and demanded in return that the Ukrainian government be held accountable.

He stressed that the West seeks to prevent a settlement between Moscow and Kiev, and added to his Western counterparts, including the Ukrainian, during a special session of the Security Council, that "the United States and its allies, in collusion with international human rights organizations, are deliberately covering up the crimes of the Kyiv regime."

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