Lavrov: Russia Facing 'Total War' From The West

Russia Facing "Total War" From West, Lavrov Says, Stressing 'We Still Have Many Friends'

TYLER DURDEN

Update(10:18ET): Coming the day after the emergency NATO summit in Brussels, where Jens Stoltenberg vowed that Russia will pay "severe costs" for "years to come" over its Ukraine invasion, and with Joe Biden now visiting Poland to highlight the refugee crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday hit back at US and Western sanctions, calling them tantamount to an act of "total war" on Russia. 

He called the sum total of isolation measures against Russia being pushed under US leadership "a real hybrid war" and said that "total war was declared on us," according to the The Associated Press.

As The Hill writes further of the fresh remarks, "The international sanctions have clearly hurt the Russian economy, though Lavrov emphasized that many states will decline to join that effort."

Lavrov said: "We have many friends, allies, partners in the world, a huge number of associations in which Russia is working with countries of all continents, and we will continue to do so" - which at the very least includes China, India, Brazil and others - which make up an outsized portion of the global economy. Meanwhile...

With newsflow out of Ukraine nothing less than a firehose (of often fake news), with market moving headlines firing every other minute on average, traders can be forgiven if they have just given up following the narrative. To help out, here is a snapshot of all the latest market-moving news out of Ukraine from the last few hours courtesy of Newsquawk:

Defense/Military

• "There is progress in ceasefire negotiations with Russia", according to Ukrainian President Advisor cited by Sky News Arabia; expresses "cautious optimism" about talks with Russia; There is a possibility of a diplomatic breakthrough in talks with Russia

• Turkey President Erdogan says Russia and Ukraine can reach compromise on four of six issues discussed, but territorial disputes remain.

• Russian military will submit a proposal to Russian President Putin on how best to respond to NATO beefing up its Eastern flank, according to the Kremlin

• US Pentagon senior official said Russia is running out of precision-guided munitions for the war in Ukraine and that the Ukraine war makes Russia a strategic burden for China.

• US Pentagon's new strategy will describe Russia as an acute threat but one that cannot pose a long-term systemic challenge, while Russia will emerge from the Ukrainian war weaker militarily and politically.

More...