Lavrov says military assistance to Ukraine makes US, NATO parties to conflict

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that military assistance to Ukraine by the US and NATO makes them parties to the conflict.

"Washington and its NATO allies are increasing supplies of lethal weapons to Ukrainian neo-Nazis, sharing intelligence data with them, recruiting them to be sent to Ukraine," said Lavrov in an address to the 24th World Russian People's Council in Moscow. "All this, in one way or another, makes them participants in the conflict."

Lavrov said Western countries use Ukraine as a tool for Russia's containment and as part of the plan to divide Russians and Ukrainians and they are working to sever spiritual ties.

"Western geopolitical 'engineers' are tirelessly working to destroy the spiritual ties of the Moscow Patriarchate and the fraternal local (Ukrainian) Orthodox churches.

"In order to discredit and denigrate the Russian Orthodox Church, an unscrupulous campaign has been launched in the media. Open harassment of the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church is practiced. There are demands for the leadership of various faiths to condemn Russia's actions," he said.

Lavrov noted that the Russian world and its communities abroad are under pressure and said sanctions imposed by some Western states against the Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all of Russia are part of the pressure.

He said attempts to isolate Russia are doomed because the modern world is multipolar, not West-oriented.

Russia stands for traditional values, common for all world's religions and cultures and will continue to work on building international relations based on international law and honesty, kindness and justice, he said.

"We will continue to strengthen fruitful cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church and other traditional confessions of our country, to promote inter-civilizational, interfaith and intercultural dialogue in the interests of further formation of a more just and democratic polycentric architecture of the world order," he said.