US Prolonging Ukraine Conflict to Profit From Arms, LNG Sales - Russian Ambassador Antonov

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States is prolonging the conflict in Ukraine in order to profit from sales of military equipment and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov told Sputnik.

"The White House cannot escape responsibility for prolonging the conflict and killing innocent people. However, the United States continues with its maniacal persistence to adhere to the tactics of war of attrition by exhausting everyone - Ukrainians, Russians, Europeans as well as ordinary Americans," Antonov said.

"There are several reasons for this, one of them being the presence of economic interest. The desire to ‘skim the cream’ through the mass sale of military equipment and LNG supplies: Only business, nothing personal."

The ambassador said the United States is waging war with Russia "until the last Ukrainian." He also pointed out that US officials often say they will not talk to Russia about Ukraine without the participation of Ukraine and that it is up to Kiev to decide at what point to sit down at the negotiating table.

"It is not clear what these words have more of - hypocrisy or banal unwillingness to admit one's own mistakes," the ambassador said. "The decision-making center on the fate of Ukraine is located somewhere, but not in Kiev. Everyone could see this in March, when one shout from Washington was enough for the [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky regime to nullify all the agreements reached during intensive contacts between the two countries."

Dialogue between the United States and Russia has been practically paralyzed" and bilateral cooperation has collapsed even on the most mutually advantageous issues, Antonov said.

"Russian-American political dialogue is at an unprecedented low level. It can be considered almost paralyzed," Antonov said. "The trust is broken and collaboration has collapsed even on issues of mutual interest. The communication between the sides is limited and largely reduced to a discussion on technical problems."

Antonov said the Russian Embassy's interaction with the US authorities has been blocked based at the initiative of the United States and the State Department prefers to communicate only by telephone or email.

It is vital to maintain channels of communication between Russia and the United States in order to prevent a confrontation that could further worsen and have unpredictable consequences, Antonov added.

"Face-to-face conversations with representatives of the White House are extremely rare," Antonov said. "Episodic high-level telephone conversations occur including through the ministries of defense. It is important to maintain communications to prevent a confrontation that could escalate with unpredictable consequences."

On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that the Biden administration was privately encouraging Kiev to demonstrate its readiness to negotiate with Moscow.

Ukraine and Russia held several rounds of peace talks since the start of hostilities on February 24. The last round concluded in Istanbul on March 29 without any results, and the talks have since been stalled.

In late September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow was still open for talks with Kiev and called on Ukraine to stop the hostilities. Zelensky said that Kiev was ready for dialogue with Moscow, but only if another president came to power in Russia. The Kremlin responded that Moscow would wait for a change in the stance of Ukraine's current president or his successor.