(MOSCOW) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the United States of direct involvement in Ukrainian drone strikes deep inside Russian territory and threatened to escalate attacks on Western military supply lines. The accusations mark a significant hardening of Kremlin rhetoric as Ukraine’s strategic bombing campaign against Russian infrastructure intensifies.
Lavrov claimed Moscow has submitted questions to the US State Department regarding alleged intelligence sharing and American participation in “the planning and execution of strikes on civilian targets deep within Russian territory.” He provided no evidence to support these claims.
The Russian foreign minister also issued a direct threat regarding Western military assistance to Kyiv. “We will make our own methods far tougher for destroying everything that fuels Kyiv’s war machine from the west and we are already doing this,” Lavrov said. “The Ukrainians are already beginning to groan.”
The Kremlin’s escalating rhetoric comes as Ukraine has intensified drone strikes against Russian oil refineries and military warehouses. These attacks have reportedly destroyed a third of the storage capacity belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, resulting in losses estimated at $5.5 billion (approximately £4.3 billion or €5 billion). The strikes represent a strategic shift aimed at disrupting both Russia’s military logistics and its consumer economy.
Eugene Rumer, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Russia and Eurasia Program, assessed that Lavrov’s statements are intended to pressure the White House into limiting or suspending assistance to Ukraine. Rumer noted that US support is increasingly delivered through European purchases of American weapons, alongside reported intelligence sharing.
According to Rumer, the threats have gained little traction in Washington. The relationship between the White House and the Kremlin has cooled considerably since the Anchorage summit nearly one year ago, when President Donald Trump hosted Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on US soil, breaking with Western policy of isolating the Russian leader. The US administration’s attention is currently consumed by the conflict with Iran and the domestic electoral season.
The Lindsey Graham sanctions bill, which threatens significant sanctions on Russia, has reportedly secured Republican support in Congress. However, Rumer cautioned that the legislation contains sufficient carveouts to allow President Trump to calibrate or avoid implementing sanctions altogether. “The president, that is President Trump, still apparently has a soft spot in his heart for President Putin. Why? I don’t understand,” Rumer said.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict remain stalled. Peace talks have not occurred since February, and a Turkish-backed proposal for a Black Sea ceasefire has been rejected by Moscow. Rumer described the state of diplomacy as “comatose” rather than dead, noting that a brief meeting between Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Manila last month produced no tangible progress.
The core obstacle to negotiations remains territory. Russian demands include Ukrainian surrender of Donbas regions that Russian forces do not currently control and appear unlikely to occupy in the foreseeable future. Ukraine has rejected these terms as unacceptable.
Rumer noted that the Russian army is making no meaningful progress on the ground, crediting Ukrainian drone capabilities with stalling Russian offensives. The main theatre of operations has shifted decisively to the air, with Russia bombarding Ukrainian cities while Ukraine strikes ever deeper into Russian territory.
Casualty figures remain staggering. Rumer cited estimates of up to 500,000 Russian soldiers killed, with over one million wounded or severely injured and unable to return to combat. Despite these losses, the Russian dictator shows no sign of altering his war objectives.
Inside Russia, public opinion surveys, though conducted in a repressive environment, suggest a majority of Russians favour ending the war. The Kremlin has moved to silence any organised opposition. The Yabloko party was recently disqualified from Duma elections on pretexts related to anti-war language. A longtime Yabloko activist in Pskov faces a potential 12-year prison sentence merely for voicing opposition to the conflict.
Ukraine’s critical vulnerability remains missile defence. While battlefield weapons supplies are adequate, the shortage of Patriot interceptor missiles is acute. Access to Starlink for strikes deeper into Russian territory has also been requested but not yet granted.
The most immediate threat to Ukraine is the approaching winter. Russian missile strikes targeting water, sewage and electricity infrastructure could render Ukrainian cities uninhabitable, potentially triggering a mass exodus. This outcome, Rumer suggested, may be part of the Kremlin’s design.
President Trump’s claim that he could end the war in one day has now stretched to 572 days, with 889 days remaining in his term.
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