Both political parties in the United States hold identical positions vis-a-vis Russia, Moscow’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Dec. 9.
He made the claim following a meeting between U.S. and Russian officials in Istanbul, where the two sides reportedly discussed issues affecting bilateral relations.
Ryabkov, who didn’t attend the Istanbul meeting, voiced concern that Washington may further reduce its level of diplomatic relations with Moscow or carry out fresh “mass expulsions” of Russian diplomatic personnel.
Since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, Kyiv’s Western allies have expelled hundreds of Russian diplomats—moves to which Moscow has responded in kind.
“Taking into account ... events around Ukraine, this problem is moving to the political plane and is being used by Washington as another element of pressure,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.
He noted that current relations between the United States and Russia were excessively “confrontational”—a situation he said was “purposefully fueled by the U.S. propaganda machine.”
The deputy foreign minister also said the United States would never change its anti-Russia position, regardless of which party won U.S. elections.
“Russia is doctrinally declared an enemy,” Ryabkov said. “When it comes to relations with Russia, both American parties [Democratic and Republican] have the same position.”
No Lull in Donetsk Fighting
Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces continues to rage along the 680-mile front line, especially near the flashpoint town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region.Located roughly 55 miles north of Donetsk city, Bakhmut (Artyomovsk in Russian) and its environs have remained the scene of fierce fighting for the past several months.
“The entire front line is being shelled,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsk’s Kyiv-appointed governor, said on Dec. 9, noting that fighting was fiercest in and around Bakhmut and the nearby town of Avdiivka.
Russian troops were currently trying to advance on the town of Lyman, located roughly 40 miles to the north of Bakhmut, he said.
According to military experts, the fall of Bakhmut would cut Ukrainian supply lines. It would also pave the way for a Russian advance on Lyman and the key Ukrainian strongholds of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
On the same day, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Russian forces were now “in a very active phase of attempting to conduct offensive operations.”
“We are advancing nowhere, but rather defending, destroying the enemy’s infantry and equipment wherever it tries to advance,” he said.
Pro-Russian sources, for their part, claim that Ukrainian forces are sustaining “catastrophic” losses in the ongoing fighting.
On Dec. 7, Andrey Marochko, a spokesman for the pro-Russian Luhansk People’s Republic militia, claimed that Ukrainian forces deployed in Donetsk were losing “up to a battalion of personnel” every day.
Cited by Russia’s TASS news agency, Marochko also claimed that Ukrainian forces were taking massive losses in repeated attempts to breach Russian lines near Svatove and Kreminna in the neighboring Luhansk region.
The latest news from the front appears to belie recent assertions by a top U.S. intelligence official that fighting had eased with the onset of winter.
On Dec. 3, Avril Haines, U.S. director of national intelligence, said, “We’re seeing a kind of a reduced tempo already of the conflict ... and we expect that’s likely to be what we see in the coming months.”
Haines said the Russian military was facing a “whole series of concerns,” including logistical challenges, ammunition shortages, and declining morale among its troops.
Russians ‘Far From Demoralized’
Recent weeks have seen a growing chorus of voices in the Western press challenge the rosy assessments offered by U.S. officials.In a Dec. 6 editorial in Newsweek, two former U.S. diplomats warned that—in the absence of increased Western support—Russian forces would likely achieve significant gains in the months ahead.
“We expect Bakhmut to fall and predict that without much more Western support, Russia will recapture Kharkiv, Kherson, and the remainder of the Donbas by next summer,” they wrote.
“Contrary to much Western reporting, [the Russian military] is far from demoralized.”
Ukraine, by contrast, according to the writers, “has exhausted its armories and is totally dependent on Western military support to continue the war.”
