File photo: Volunteers unfurl a giant Russian national flag to mark Russia’s National Flag Day next to World War II-era artillery guns in St. Petersburg, Russia,
Russia has no intention or plans to attack European countries and has no reason to do so, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday, rejecting Western discussions about a possible military conflict between Moscow and Europe.
She also criticised Nato’s concept of “escalation management”, describing it as harmful. Zhdanova said it was a mistake to believe that an escalation between Nato and Russia could be kept under control, arguing that the approach encouraged Nato and the European Union to act recklessly rather than reduce military risks.
Speaking at a roundtable titled “Militarization of Europe: What Next?”, held under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Ryabkov said Western countries were discussing the prospect of a military confrontation as though it were “almost predetermined and inevitable”. Ryabkov said Moscow posed no threat to any country and had no plans to attack anyone in the near, medium or long term, according to a statement published on the Russian foreign ministry’s website. He said the conflict could have been resolved while taking into account the legitimate interests of all parties, but alleged that the West had pushed Ukraine to abandon reasonable solutions and choose war. On the future of relations between Moscow and European capitals, Ryabkov said Russia believed European countries would sooner or later be willing to resume dialogue on the basis of equality, indivisible security, pragmatism and mutual consideration of interests. At the same event, Yulia Zhdanova, head of the Russian delegation to the Vienna Negotiations on Military Security and Arms Control, said European countries had offered their populations no vision of the future beyond the notion that conflict with Russia was inevitable.
Ryabkov also accused some European governments of having no genuine intention of ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Ukrainian delegates were expected to meet European allies separately to brief them on the discussions. Ukraine’s delegation head Rustem Umerov said on Monday that Kyiv was working to ensure Europe remained part of the diplomatic process.