live blog
As of: 4/4/2023 3:50 a.m
Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov threatens that Moscow can crack down on “hostile Europe”. Meanwhile, Federal Foreign Minister Baerbock is calling on Russia to stop using mines in Ukraine. All developments in the live blog.
3:50 a.m
Baerbock calls on Russia to give up mines in Ukraine
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) has called on Russia to stop mining agricultural land in Ukraine. The mines not only result in many civilian casualties, but also prevent numerous farmers from tilling their fields and bringing in the harvest, said Baerbock, according to a statement from the Federal Foreign Office. “In this way, Russia is reducing the supply of food on the world market, thereby increasing hunger in the world.”
Baerbock spoke on the occasion of the International Day of Mine Awareness this Tuesday. “Anti-personnel mines are cruel weapons. They are the reason why mothers and fathers in countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia and Iraq still have to worry for their children every time they go outside to play, decades after a conflict,” she said.
3:50 a.m
Lavrov: Russia could crack down on “hostile Europe”.
According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the European Union’s bad relationship with Russia is self-inflicted. “The European Union ‘lost’ Russia. But that’s their own fault,” Lavrov said in an interview with the state-run newspaper Argumenty i Fatky (AIF). “It is the EU member states and EU leaders who openly state that it is necessary to inflict what they call a strategic defeat on Russia.”
Russia has decided how to deal with Europe because it supplies weapons and trainers to the “criminal regime” in Kiev. Moscow intends to be tough on Europe if necessary. “In response to hostile moves, if necessary, we will crack down on the basis of Russia’s national interests and the principles of reciprocity accepted in diplomatic practice.”