Russian President Vladimir Putin said the relations between the United States and Russia are “in a deep crisis,” while Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that Moscow is now in a “hot conflict” with Washington.
Putin made his remarks while addressing new U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy on Wednesday. Tracy was among 17 ambassadors who presented their diplomatic credentials to Putin at a televised ceremony in the Kremlin.
U.S. support for a revolution in Ukraine in 2014 ultimately led to the current situation where Russia and Ukraine are in conflict, Putin said.
“Dear Madam Ambassador, I know that you may not agree with my opinion but I must say today that the use by the United States of such tools as support of the so-called color revolutions, support of the coup of Kyiv in 2014, ultimately led to the current Ukrainian crisis and additionally made a negative contribution to the degradation of Russia-U.S. relations,” Putin said.
He was referring to an armed coup in February 2014 in which anti-Russia, pro-European Union (EU) factions overthrew then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s government, which wasn’t against Russia, and which had refused to sign a political association and free trade agreement with the EU in late 2013.
Both Luhansk and Donetsk in the Donbas region also declared independence from Ukraine in April 2014 in response to the February coup. Shortly after the breakaway, the Ukrainian military was deployed to fight the rebels in the Donbas. More than 10,000 civilians have died since the fighting began. Ukraine accused Russia of being responsible for the escalation of the conflict, but Moscow has denied any involvement.
Putin took a similar line with the new EU ambassador, Roland Galharague, telling him “the European Union initiated a geopolitical confrontation with Russia.”
“Now we are in the phase of a hot conflict with the United States,” Ryabkov added. “We are witnessing the direct involvement of that country in a hybrid war with Russia on various fronts.”
“They ought to be aware what any encroachment on our sovereignty, our territorial integrity and our statehood [will entail],” he said. “If this trend persists, we will be ready to take all measures and to use all means at our disposal in order to defend ourselves and ensure that our sovereignty be guaranteed.”
He also said that recent talk about the risk of a nuclear conflict is a “rather dramatic issue,” adding that Russia has repeatedly stressed that “there can be no winners in a nuclear war and that it must not be unleashed.”
“But the way our American opponents are recklessly, provocatively, and in many respects absolutely carelessly moving up the escalation ladder, the way they are blinded by their absolutely absurd certainty about their ability to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia makes one doubt their mental faculties and their common sense,” Ryabkov said.
Speaking separately, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow needed to maintain relations with Washington even though American supplies of weapons to Ukraine meant “we are really in a hot phase of the war.”
Lavrov told state television that Russia had not yet lost hope that the United States “will wake up to reason [and] will resume some kind of dialogue.”
Putin also urged Denmark to support Russia’s proposal to establish an independent international commission to investigate the blasts last September that ruptured the Nord Stream undersea pipelines bringing gas from Russia to Germany.
“Russia is open for constructive partnerships with all countries without exception. We are not going to isolate ourselves from anyone, we don’t have predetermined or hostile intentions towards anybody.”Relations between Russia and the West were already strained before it began its “special military operation” in Ukraine in February 2022 but have plunged even further since then.
Putin previously cited the Azov battalion’s neo-Nazi elements in his justification for invading Ukraine in February 2022, calling for the “denazification” of the region.
The Azov battalion, a volunteer paramilitary organization, was formed in 2014 during the Donbas War in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian forces and pro-Ukrainian forces, following the February 2014 coup.
Reuters contributed to this report.