Ukraine trying to trick Trump – Moscow

Ukraine is trying to trick US President Donald Trump, who wants to achieve peace in the ongoing conflict, into returning Washington to an anti-Russian stance, Vassily Nebenzia, Moscow’s envoy to the UN, has said.

During his speech at a UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine on Thursday, Ambassador Nebenzia reminded of the intensification of Ukrainian drone incursions into Russia over the past week. A total of 1,465 drones had been shot down by air defenses, but nonetheless led to civilian casualties and deaths, including among children, he said.

Kiev and its NATO backers “are trying to make us believe that Russia is deliberately shelling residential areas of Ukrainian cities” during its retaliatory strikes, the envoy stressed.

Moscow’s attacks “target exclusively objects related to Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, and we are successfully destroying them or rendering them inoperable,” Nebenzia said, reiterating the stance consistency voiced by the Russian Defense Ministry throughout the conflict.

“The plans concocted by [Vladimir] Zelensky and his posse are way too plain and clear. Their task is to trick and mislead American President Donald Trump, who is taking decisive steps toward peace; they are ready to go to any lengths only to return the US – which has already wasted hundreds of billions of dollars helping Ukraine – to an anti-Russian and Russophobic course,” he insisted.

However, the envoy stressed that “promoting Ukrainian and Western lies about Russia is becoming increasingly difficult, since the actual steps of the Kiev regime, its deliberate choice in favor of war and the further suffering of its citizens speak volumes.”

Moscow is eager to continue “serious direct negotiations” with Kiev in order to find a solution to the Ukraine conflict that would address its root causes, he said.

He reminded that Russia has invited the Ukrainian delegation to Istanbul on Monday to discuss the memorandums on approaches to negotiating peace prepared by the sides.