KYIV
\nRussia appears to have reversed itself after the country\u2019s top diplomat said Moscow\u2019s overarching goal is to topple the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as Russian artillery barrages and air strikes continue to pummel cities across Ukraine.
\nThe remark from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov comes amid Ukraine\u2019s efforts to resume grain exports from its Black Sea ports, something that would help ease global food shortages, under a new deal tested by a Russian strike on Odesa over the weekend.
\nSpeaking to envoys at an Arab League summit in Cairo late Sunday, Lavrov said Moscow is determined to help Ukrainians \u201cliberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime.\u201d
\nLavrov accused Kiev and \u201cits Western allies\u201d of spouting propaganda intended to ensure that Ukraine \u201cbecomes the eternal enemy of Russia.\u201d
\n\u201cRussian and Ukrainian people would continue to live together, we will certainly help Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical,\u201d he said.
\nLavrov\u2019s remarks contrasted sharply with the Kremlin\u2019s line early in the war, when Russian officials repeatedly emphasized that they weren\u2019t seeking to overthrow Zelensky\u2019s government.
\nLavrov argued that Russia was ready to negotiate a deal to end hostilities in March when Kyiv changed tack and declared its intention to rout Russia on the battlefield, adding that the West has encouraged Ukraine to keep fighting.
\n\u201cThe West insists that Ukraine must not start negotiations until Russia is defeated on the battlefield,\u201d Lavrov said.
\nIt was not yet clear when grain shipments would resume following Russia and Ukraine signing identical agreements with the United Nations and Turkey on Friday in Istanbul. The deals are aimed at clearing the way for the shipment of millions of tons of desperately needed Ukrainian grain, as well as the export of Russian grain and fertilizer.
\nThe Kremlin insisted Monday that the attack on the port of Odesa over the weekend targeted military assets and would not affect grain shipping.
\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the strike had to do \u201cexclusively with the military infrastructure.\u201d
\n\u201cThis is in no way related to the infrastructure involved in fulfilling the agreements and exporting grain. So this can\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t affect the start of the shipment process in any way,\u201d Peskov said.
\nThe Kremlin spokesman also said that Moscow has no interest in halting all gas supplies to Europe and that recent restrictions on the flow of Russian gas to European countries \u201care simply the consequences of restrictions the Europeans have imposed, and the Europeans themselves are suffering from these restrictions.\u201d
\n\u201cRussia is a responsible gas supplier, and no matter what anyone says, the European Commission, in European capitals, in the US, Russia has been and continues to be a country that to a large extent guarantees Europe\u2019s energy security,\u201d Peskov said.
\nMeanwhile, Ukraine\u2019s presidential office said Monday that at least two civilians were killed and another 10 were wounded in the latest Russian shelling during the last 24 hours.
\nIn the eastern Donetsk region, the focus of the Russian offensive, Russian artillery struck Avdiivka, Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka. An airstrike on Bakhmut damaged at least five houses.
\n\u201cThe Russians are using the scorched earth tactics across the entire Donbas, they fire from the ground and from the air to wipe off entire cities,\u201d Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said in televised remarks.
\nThe Russians also struck the Kharkiv region. In the city of Chuhuiv, a Russian strike ruined the building of a local club and rescue workers removed several people from under the debris.
\nKharkiv Gov. Oleh Sinyehubov denounced the attack as \u201csenseless barbarity,\u201d saying that \u201cit looks like a deadly lottery when no one knows where the next strike will come and the entire region is dangerous for living.\u201d
\nIn the Dnipro region, a 10-year-old girl was wounded by shelling, and a 7-year-old child was wounded in the Russian shelling of the Mykolaiv region.
\nIn other developments:
\n\u2014 Russia\u2019s top domestic security agency said Monday it has thwarted an attempt by the Ukrainian military intelligence to entice Russian military pilots to surrender their combat jets to Ukraine.
\nThe Federal Security Service (FSB), the KGB\u2019s successor agency, said Monday that Ukrainians offered Russian pilots cash and European Union citizenship to persuade them to hijack their warplanes. In a video released by the FSB, a man purported to be a Ukrainian intelligence officer, is offering to pay a prospective defector pilot $2 million if he would surrender his plane during a combat mission over Ukraine.
\nRussian state television claimed that Western spy agencies assisted the Ukrainians in the effort. The Russian claims couldn\u2019t be independently verified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV Russia appears to have reversed itself after the country\u2019s top diplomat said Moscow\u2019s overarching goal is to topple the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as Russian artillery barrages and air strikes continue to pummel cities across Ukraine. The remark from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov comes amid Ukraine\u2019s efforts to resume grain exports […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-273515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n