Russia’s top diplomat said Thursday what The Trends Journal has been saying for months: the U.S. and NATO are parties to the Ukraine War. 

Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, told reporters in a video call that it was inaccurate to say that the U.S. and NATO are not “taking part in this war.”

“You are directly participating in it,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “And not just by providing weapons but also by training personnel. You are training their military on your territory, on the territories of Britain, Germany, Italy, and other countries.”

Lavrov said the West has been providing intelligence, weapons, and training to keep the war going in hopes to damage Moscow. 

The U.S. and NATO allies have been pumping Ukraine’s military with an historic amount of weapons. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, a former Raytheon board member, told reporters early in the war that it is his hope “to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”

In September, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council and the former Russian president, was critical of NATO’s nearly unlimited support for Ukraine’s war effort. He said it is inevitable that the “military campaign” in Ukraine will move to another level if the support continues.

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, said the Kremlin is “sending signals to the Americans that their line of escalation and ever deeper involvement in this conflict is fraught with dire consequences. The risks are growing.”

Kyiv has said peace talks are only possible if Russia stops its attacks and withdraws from all Ukrainian territory. Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s infrastructure and Western intelligence reports said Russia could be planning another large bombardment.

TRENDPOST: The Trends Journal has reported extensively on the evolution of the war in Ukraine and the increasing threat of a nuclear confrontation with each passing day. (See “EU BORRELL SAYS RUSSIAN ARMY WOULD BE ‘ANNIHILATED’ IF PUTIN USES NUKES IN UKRAINE,” “PUTIN SENDS STERN WARNING TO THE WEST, VOWS TO KEEP UP FIGHT IN UKRAINE” and “PUTIN WARNS WEST TO STOP SENDING DEADLY WEAPONS OR RUSSIA WILL HIT ‘OBJECTS THAT WE HAVEN’T YET STRUCK.’”). 

NATO Sends More Troops to Russia’s Border

At about the same time Lavrov said the West is a participant in the war with Russia, NATO announced that it will raise the readiness of its troops and “double the number of NATO battle groups from four to eight.”

“We have increased our presence on the ground, we have more presence in the air,” Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO head, said. 

He reiterated that the Alliance has been testing its missile defense systems and seaborne air strike capabilities. He noted that last week, Spanish, Turkish, U.S., and French fighters took part in the drills. These fighters took off from the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. 

Stoltenberg called the possible membership of Finland and Sweden a game-changer for the European security architecture.

“So our message from Bucharest is that NATO will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. We will not back down,” he said.

Gabrielius Landsbergis, the Latvian foreign minister, appealed to NATO to give Ukraine the green light to start carrying out strikes inside of Russia, namely missile sites or airfields, where he said these Russian operations are being launched, Bloomberg reported.

TRENDPOST: The Trends Journal has reported extensively on how the U.S. is at war with Russia, but it will not be officially declared until a nuclear explosion. (See “U.S. AT WAR WITH RUSSIA: SPECIAL FORCES ARE ON THE GROUND IN UKRAINE” and “U.S. DISREGARDS RUSSIA’S WARNING…AGAIN, SAYS UKRAINE CAN TARGET TERRITORY SEIZED BY RUSSIAN FORCES.”)  

We reported in October that there are currently more U.S. special forces and CIA agents in Ukraine today than there were at the beginning of the war.  

Stoltenberg said in June that it is likely that the Ukraine War could drag on for years and that Western countries should prepare for the long haul.

He made the comment during an interview with the German newspaper Bild. He said we must “not let up” in supporting Ukraine.

“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years,” he said. “We must not let up in supporting Ukraine. Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, [but] also because of rising energy and food prices.”