Blinken blasts Lavrov for Russian escalation in Ukraine

The two men were in Malta for the annual ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Lavrov's first visit to a European Union country since Russia's 2022 invasion of its neighbour.

"Now I regret that our colleague, Mr. Lavrov, has left the room, not giving me the courtesy to listen to us as we listen to him. And of course, our Russian colleague is very adept in drowning listeners with a tsunami of misinformation," Blinken said.

"But let's not fool ourselves and let's not allow him or anyone else to fool us. This is not about and has never been about Russia's security. This is about Mr. Putin's imperial project to erase Ukraine from the map."

He added: "One of our colleagues talked about escalation. He's exactly right. Let's talk about escalation."

He referenced North Korea sending troops to fight in the war with Ukraine, as well as "the ongoing assault on Ukraine's energy, including its nuclear transmission group, which poses a great threat to every single country in this room".

Blinken and Lavrov were not due to meet face-to-face in Malta.

Russia says West ignoring warnings over sending troops to Ukraine
Ta'Qali, Malta (AFP) Dec 5, 2024 - Russia on Thursday accused the West of failing to heed the Kremlin's warnings over the dangers of dispatching troops to support Ukraine.

Speculation over possible Western deployments, potentially as a peacekeeping force in the event of a ceasefire, has ratched up amid an escalation in the near three-year war.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that the talk of boots on the ground showed the West was not listening to Moscow's concerns.

"All these fantasies are only exacerbating the situation, and show that the people who hold such ideas, prefer not to hear the very clear warnings that President Putin has repeatedly given," he told reporters.

France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said last month that there were no "red lines" when it came to Paris's support for Ukraine.

Asked whether this included a French troop deployment, he said: "We do not discard any option."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday it was too early and "inappropriate" to discuss whether Berlin would in future send troops to a possible peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

Lavrov was speaking after an OSCE summit in Malta, his first trip to an EU country since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.