Russian FM: US, NATO directly involved in Ukraine conflict

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s foreign minister has accused the West of becoming directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine by supplying it with weapons and training its soldiers. Sergey Lavrov also said Thursday that Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities and other key infrastructure that have left millions without power, heating and water were intended to weaken Ukraine’s military potential and derail the shipments of Western weapons. Russia’s top diplomat claimed that the barrage of missiles strikes was intended to “knock out energy facilities that allow you to keep pumping deadly weapons into Ukraine in order to kill the Russians.”