Putin's top diplomat blames 'Russophobic' ideology, not Russia's unprovoked aggression, for the West's support for Ukraine

• Putin's top diplomat placed the blame on "Russophobic" ideology for Western support of Ukraine.
• Yet the official, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, made no mention of Moscow's unprovoked aggression in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's top diplomat placed the blame on "Russophobic" ideology — and not Moscow's unprovoked aggression in Ukraine — for the West's support of the eastern European country.

The "unconditional support" of Ukraine amid Russia's seven-week war with the country has become the "culmination" of the "Russophobic course" by the West, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday at the Digital International Relations 2022 conference in Moscow, according to a translation by the state-owned TASS news agency.

"The culmination of this Russophobic course has been Washington and Brussels' unconditional support for the radical nationalist Kyiv regime, the nurturing of ultra-radicals in Ukraine, and the creation of an 'anti-Russia' out of Ukraine," Lavrov claimed, TASS reported.

Lavrov accused the West, led by the US, of seeking to assert its dominance in global affairs "in order to continue to solve its narrow personal interest at the expense of the national interests" of other countries, according to TASS.

"The most important part of this aggressive line is the West's long standing policy of comprehensive, systemic containment of our country. On all fronts, as they say," Lavrov said, the news agency reported.

Lavrov also claimed that the West has been "shielding" Ukraine from a failure to comply with the Minsk agreements between Russia and Ukraine, which aimed to end the years-long Donbass war in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO, "was actively dragged into NATO, encouraged in every way to prohibit the Russian language, Russian education, Russian media, arrest people, persecute and even murder independent journalists, was pumped with lethal weapons," Lavrov said, according to the TASS translation.

Putin launched his country's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24, with Russian troops surrounding and shelling towns and cities across the country.

Russia, which has been hit by sweeping sanctions imposed by the US, UK, European Union, Canada, and Switzerland for its invasion, has been widely accused of committing egregious war crimes amid its attack on Ukraine.

Last week, Lavrov said Russia's war with Ukraine was "meant to put an end" to US-led global domination and the expansion of NATO.