Audience Laughs At Russia's Top Diplomat Declaring Ukraine War Was 'Launched Against Us'

While speaking at an event in New Delhi, India on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the war in Ukraine "was launched against us," which drew laughter from the audience.

Responding to a question at the Raisina Dialogue, India’s premier conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics, Lavrov said, "You know the war which we are trying to stop, and which was launched against us using the Ukrainian people."

The audience erupted into laughter following his statement about the war against Russia. 

Speaking in India, whose government has been sympathetic to Putin’s claims on Ukraine and helped Moscow mitigate the effect of western sanctions, Lavrov says “the war we are trying to stop was launched against us.”

The audience laughs at him.

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After a pause, Lavrov said, "Of course, the conflict influenced the policy of Russia, including the energy policy."

"The blunt way to describe what changed: We would not rely anymore on any partners in the West," he added. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently criticized the U.S. for supporting Ukraine and said the West was preparing to turn Ukraine into a launchpad bristling with weapons to attack Russia. 

Putin has blamed Western countries, including the U.S., for starting the war with Ukraine.

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"It was unleashed by this very collective West, organizing and then supporting an unconstitutional armed coup in Ukraine in 2014, and then encouraging and justifying genocide against people in Donbas," Putin said.

He previously said that Russia is not fighting with the Ukrainian people, but rather with the Kyiv regime and the West. 

Taking a stand on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the U.S. State Department has said that Putin will be held accountable for war crimes carried out against civilians in Ukraine. 

However, last month Putin's spokesperson said the Kremlin is open to negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine. 

Putin's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has said Moscow would not renounce its claims to four Ukrainian regions. If Kyiv accepted its control over those regions, Russia was open to talks.

Russia's war on Ukraine has entered its second year, with the world witnessing a long-standing conflict, the deadliest since World War II. 

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