MOSCOW, June 23, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Russia on Tuesday said the United States 
was no longer an "objective mediator" in its efforts to broker an end to the 
Ukraine war as it blasted Europe's plans to bolster defence spending.

US-led talks on ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II remain 
effectively frozen as President Donald Trump has shifted his attention 
towards the Middle East after ordering strikes on Iran in late February.

"As for the United States, judging by their actions, they appear to be 
abandoning any claim to the role of an objective mediator and are instead 
pursuing a course of escalating sanctions pressure on Russia," Russian 
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told foreign envoys in Moscow on Tuesday.

At the G7 summit in France earlier this month, leaders -- including Trump -- 
agreed to increase pressure on the Russian "war economy" by strengthening 
sanctions, including on energy.

Since returning to the White House in 2025, Trump -- who had pledged he would 
end the Ukraine war within a day of taking office -- has been pushing both 
sides to engage in negotiations.

There has been little progress in the US-brokered shuttle diplomacy, with 
Kyiv refusing to give in to Moscow's demands to cede territory, limit the 
size of its army and renounce Western support.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions in Ukraine 
forced from their homes since Russia launched its full-scale offensive in 
February 2022.

In recent months Moscow has grown increasingly critical of Europe's role in 
supporting Ukraine and trying to stop Trump pushing Kyiv to accept a Russia-
friendly peace.

Speaking separately on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Europe 
was "openly" preparing for war through its massive rearmament programme -- 
which is being urged on by Trump.

"Now in the West they openly say that they are preparing for war with us, and 
are increasing their military, offensive budgets," the Kremlin chief told a 
ceremony of newly-qualified military and law enforcement officials.

In hawkish remarks he repeated Russia's call for Ukraine to fully withdraw 
from the eastern Donbas region and said his troops were on the brink of 
capturing the key fortified town of Kostiantynivka.

Putin also said an escalating wave of Ukrainian retaliatory hits on Russian 
infrastructure was designed to "shake-up society" and was being done with 
Western support -- his first such comments since a massive attack on Moscow 
set an oil refinery ablaze last week, pouring black smoke over the Russian 
capital.