Russia says EU military assistance mission to Ukraine will make bloc party to conflict

Russia on Thursday said the EU will become a party to the conflict if it establishes a mission for military assistance to Ukraine.

Speaking at a press briefing in Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said "the open, large-scale support of the West, which is provided to the Kyiv regime, delays the fighting and pushes the Kyiv regime to crimes."

She noted that the US provides Ukraine with satellite and other kinds of intelligence data, and trains "militants."

"Every week more and more money is pouring into the region, to the Kyiv regime, so that the fighting does not stop, so that even more people die," she said.

Zakharova also said on Thursday that Moscow's position - that a nuclear war must never be fought - had not changed.

President Vladimir Putin had previously said he was "not bluffing" over his willingness to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia's territorial integrity.

In a blog post on Wednesday, Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, said: "At the next Foreign Affairs Council on 17 October, I hope we can formally launch our training mission for Ukrainian armed forces."

Besides implementing unprecedented sanctions on Moscow, the West has provided Kyiv with heavy weapons, which have allowed the Ukrainian military to advance and reclaim territories taken by Russian forces.

Russia began its "special military operation" in February to "denazify" and "demilitarize" Ukraine.

Zakharova said Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ruled out peace talks with President Vladimir Putin at the behest of Western powers, calling it a part of the policy to prolong the conflict.

"This was done at the behest of the West, which does not want the cessation of hostilities, intends to continue them, as they say among themselves 'to the last Ukrainian'," she said.

She said Kyiv "exacts revenge" on the people of Donbas "for the choice they made freely."

Putin has signed decrees declaring Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions as part of Russia, following referendums held on Sept. 23-27.

The vote has been condemned by the international community, with European nations and the US calling them sham and underlining that they would not be recognized.