Russian diplomat says U.S. ties are in ‘unprecedented’ moment of ‘crisis’

Russia-U.S. relations are in a state of “unprecedented crisis” without any sign of improve- ment, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov argued that the White House’s emphasis on increasing weapons supplies to Ukraine to ensure Russia’s defeat leaves no room for diplomacy.

“I don’t see any prospect for a productive political and diplomatic process,” Ryabkov said at a briefing. “We have a very deep and unprecedented crisis in Russia-U.S. relations. The Biden administration has driven them into a deadlock.”

Ryabkov warned that the U.S. and its allies must carefully assess the risks stemming from supplying increasingly powerful West- ern weapons to Ukraine.

“The Americans need to thoroughly and deeply weigh the risks linked to their unabashedly cavalier course,” he said.

Ryabkov noted that Moscow doesn’t trust Western statements about self-im- posed restrictions on a range of weapons supplied to Ukraine in order to avoid escalation, adding that such assurances in the past have served as cover for a steady expansion of the assortment of arms deliveries.

“We don’t see any sign of reason in any of the NATO and EU members’ capitals,” Ryabkov said. “What they are doing isn’t going to strengthen their security.”

He re j ected t he U.S. argument t hat Russia’s refusal to allow the resumption of inspections of its nuclear facilities represents a breach of the New START treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control pact between the two countries.

The New START treaty, signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.

Just days before the treaty was due to expire in February 2021, Russia and the United States agreed to extend it for another five years.

Russia and the U.S. have suspended mutual inspections under New START since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Moscow last fall refused to allow their resumption, raising uncertai nty about t he pact’s future. Russia also indefinitely postponed a planned round of consultations under the treaty.

The U.S. State Department last week said Russia’s refusal to allow the inspections “prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control.”Ryabkov on Thursday insisted that Russia has continued to comply with the treaty.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that “a Ukraine that is winning” its war with Russia should be a member of the European Union, arguing the bloc wouldn’t be complete without it.

Zelenskyy made his appeal during an emotional day at EU headquarters in Brussels as he wrapped up a rare, two-day trip outside Ukraine to seek new weaponry from the West to repel the fullscale invasion that Moscow has been waging for nearly a year. As he spoke, a new offensive by Russia in eastern Ukraine was under way.

Zelenskyy, who also visited the U.K. and France, received rapturous applause and cheers from the European Parliament and a summit of the 27 EU leaders, insisting in his speech that the fight with Russia was one for the freedom of all of Europe.

“A Ukraine that is winning is going to be member of the European Union,” Zelenskyy said, building his appeal around the common destiny that Ukraine and the bloc face in confront- ing Russia.

“Europe will always be, and remain Europe as long as we ... take care of the European way of life,” he said.

He added t hat m embership talks should start later this year, an ambi- tious request, considering the huge task ahead. Such a move would help moti- vate Ukrainian soldiers in their defense of the country.

“There is no rigid time- line,” warned EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

He held up an EU flag after his address and the entire legislature stood in som- ber silence as the Ukrainian national anthem and the European anthem “Ode to Joy” were played in succession.

Before his speech, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said allies should consider “quickly, as a next step, providing long-range systems” and fighter jets to Ukraine. The response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine “must be proportional to the threat, and the threat is existential,” she said.

Metsola also told Zelen- skyy that “we have your back. We were with you then, we are with you now, we will be with you for as long as it takes.”

A draft of the summit’s conclusions seen by The Associated Press said “the European Union will stand by Ukraine with steadfast support for as long as it takes.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the bloc will send Zelenskyy “this sig- nal of unity and solidarity, and can show that we will continue our support for Ukraine in defending its inde- pendence and integrity.”

Military analysts say Putin is hoping that Europe’s support for Ukraine will wane as Russia is believed to be preparing a new offensive.

The Kremlin’s forces “have regained the initiative in Ukraine and have begun their next major offensive” in the eastern Luhansk region, most of which is occupied by Russia, the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest assessment. “Russian forces are gradually beginning an offensive, but its success is not inherent or predetermined.”

Zelenskyy used the dais of the European Parliament hoping to match Wednesday’s speech to Britain’s leg- islature when he thanked the nation for its unrelenting support.

That same support has come from the EU. The bloc and its member states have already backed Kyiv with about 50 billion euros ($53.6 billion) in aid, provided military hardware and imposed nine packages of sanctions on the Kremlin.

The EU is in the midst of brokering a sanctions package worth about 10 billion euros ($10.7 billion) before the war’s anniversary. And there is still plenty of scope for exporting more military hardware to Ukraine as a Russian spring offensive is expected.

Russia is also watching Zelenskyy’s movements closely. On Wednesday, Russian state television showed the flight path of a British air force plane that Zelenskyy used to travel to London taken from a flight monitoring site. The anchor noted that the plane flew from the Polish air base in Rzeszow that serves as a hub for Western arms deliveries to Ukraine.