Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday accused Europe of blocking efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, after another round of strikes left 16 dead on both sides.

United Nations (United States) (AFP) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday accused Europe of blocking efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, after another round of strikes left 16 dead on both sides.

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But Lavrov, who met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week in New York, instead took aim at Europe, saying it was actively trying to block talks supported by US President Donald Trump’s government.

“Europe is doing everything it can to thwart peace talks in which the Trump administration is interested,” Lavrov said in a fiery speech to the UN General Assembly.

“The aims of the special military operation will be achieved, the threat to Russian security will be eliminated and peaceful life will come back. This will happen no matter the circumstances,” he added, using Moscow’s terminology for the conflict.

Russian and Ukrainian strikes killed at least 16 people over the last 24 hours, both countries said Saturday.

Kyiv said Russian strikes had killed at least six people – in northeastern Sumy, in Zaporizhzhia and in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where a 17-year-old girl was among the victims.

Russia said Ukrainian strikes had killed four people in its Krasnodar and Belgorod regions. Kremlin-installed officials in southern occupied-Ukraine meanwhile said six others were killed in the past 24 hours.

United Nations officials have warned about the increasing numbers of civilian victims in the war.

Earlier this week at the UN General Assembly, Trump once again said that a deal between Moscow and Kyiv to end the war was “going to happen.”

But US-led talks to end fighting have not led to a breakthrough, and the Kremlin has repeatedly said it intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine.

Moscow has intensified strikes on Kyiv as the city prepares for another winter of war, while Ukraine has struck deeper inside Russia this year, hitting as far as the Urals and Siberia.

Daytime strikes on Kyiv left seven dead on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Russia was “escalating every single day” and has called for more allied sanctions on Moscow.

“They want to simply wipe out our nation,” said 43-year-old Kyiv resident Oleksandr Gorlachov.

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