West has declared ‘total war’ on Russia: Lavrov

KIEV

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on May 27 accused Western countries of waging a “total war” on Russia and its people and culture as Moscow pushes on with its military operation in Ukraine.

“The West has declared war on us, on the whole Russian world. The culture of canceling Russia and everything connected with our country is already reaching the point of absurdity,” Lavrov said at a ministry meeting.

He accused the West of banning Russian writers, composers and other cultural figures.

“It is safe to say that this situation will be with us for a long time,” he added.

According to Lavrov, Washington “and its satellites are doubling, tripling, quadrupling their efforts to contain our country.”

He said they are “using the widest range of tools, from unilateral economic sanctions to thoroughly false propaganda in the global media space.”

“In many Western countries, everyday Russophobia has become of an unprecedented nature, and, to our great regret, is encouraged by government circles in a number of countries,” Lavrov said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv on May 27 reeled from a deadly onslaught of Russian shelling as Moscow pressed its offensive to capture key points in the eastern Donbas region with more bombing of residential areas.

The pounding of Kharkiv, which according to local officials left at least nine people dead, raised fears that Russia had not lost interest in the city even after Ukraine took back control after fierce battles.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated accusations that Moscow is carrying out a “genocide” in Donbas, saying its bombardment could leave the entire region “uninhabited.”

Oleg Sinegubov, the regional governor of Kharkiv which lies to the north of the Donbas region, said that nine civilians had been killed in the Russian shelling on May 26.

A five-month-old child and her father were among the dead, while her mother was gravely wounded, he said on social media channels.

In Donbas, Russian forces were closing in on several cities, including strategically located Severodonetsk and Lysychansk which stand on the crucial route to Ukraine’s eastern administrative center in Kramatorsk.

Pro-Russian separatists said they had captured the town of Lyman that lies between Severodonetsk and Kramatorsk and is on the road leading to the key cities that are still under Kyiv’s control.

Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said in a video on Telegram that at least five civilians had been killed in the Lugansk region, part of Donbas, in the last 24 hours alone.