MOSCOW, June 23, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Russia on Tuesday said the United States

was no longer an "objective mediator" in its efforts to broker an end to the

Ukraine war as it blasted Europe's plans to bolster defence spending.

US-led talks on ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II remain

effectively frozen as President Donald Trump has shifted his attention

towards the Middle East after ordering strikes on Iran in late February.

"As for the United States, judging by their actions, they appear to be

abandoning any claim to the role of an objective mediator and are instead

pursuing a course of escalating sanctions pressure on Russia," Russian

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told foreign envoys in Moscow on Tuesday.

At the G7 summit in France earlier this month, leaders -- including Trump --

agreed to increase pressure on the Russian "war economy" by strengthening

sanctions, including on energy.

Since returning to the White House in 2025, Trump -- who had pledged he would

end the Ukraine war within a day of taking office -- has been pushing both

sides to engage in negotiations.

There has been little progress in the US-brokered shuttle diplomacy, with

Kyiv refusing to give in to Moscow's demands to cede territory, limit the

size of its army and renounce Western support.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions in Ukraine

forced from their homes since Russia launched its full-scale offensive in

February 2022.

In recent months Moscow has grown increasingly critical of Europe's role in

supporting Ukraine and trying to stop Trump pushing Kyiv to accept a Russia-

friendly peace.

Speaking separately on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Europe

was "openly" preparing for war through its massive rearmament programme --

which is being urged on by Trump.

"Now in the West they openly say that they are preparing for war with us, and

are increasing their military, offensive budgets," the Kremlin chief told a

ceremony of newly-qualified military and law enforcement officials.

In hawkish remarks he repeated Russia's call for Ukraine to fully withdraw

from the eastern Donbas region and said his troops were on the brink of

capturing the key fortified town of Kostiantynivka.

Putin also said an escalating wave of Ukrainian retaliatory hits on Russian

infrastructure was designed to "shake-up society" and was being done with

Western support -- his first such comments since a massive attack on Moscow

set an oil refinery ablaze last week, pouring black smoke over the Russian

capital.

BSS/AFP/SSS/1818 hrs