Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Accuses West Of Supporting Genocide In Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while attending the G20 Summit in Bali. (Twitter/@mfa_russia)

JAKARTA - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday the West was "supporting genocide" in Ukraine through its support for President Volodymyr Zelensky's peace plan, which he said would "destroy everything Russian" in eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

Lavrov, speaking on a trip to Africa, offered no evidence to back up his claim.

"The conclusion is very simple, the West is directly supporting genocide," Lavrov told a news conference with his Burundi counterpart.

Russia has long accused the West of ignoring what it says are abuses by Ukraine against Russian speakers in the eastern Donbas region and elsewhere.

President Zelensky's peace plan envisages the withdrawal of Russian troops from all of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed by force in 2014.

Speaking on the day Russia accused Ukraine of launching its largest-ever drone strike on Moscow, Lavrov said the West was directly helping Kyiv to carry out "terrorist" attacks by providing weapons and military equipment.

"The West's assertion that the weapons it supplies (to Ukraine) should not be used to attack the territory of the Russian Federation are simply lies," he said.

Lavrov also took aim at the comments from US Senator Lindsey Graham, saying they could be understood as an encouragement to kill Russians.

In a video edited and released by President Zelensky's office on Friday, Graham is seen telling a meeting with the Ukrainian president in Kyiv, "Russia is dying" and then saying that US support is "the best money we've ever spent".

After Russia criticized the remarks, Ukraine released a full video of the meeting on Sunday, showing that the two statements were not directly related.

Graham said he only praised Ukraine's spirit in resisting the Russian invasion with the help provided by Washington.