Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that the military offensive in Ukraine had 'rallied' society 'in an unprecedented way', during his annual press conference on the results of Russian diplomacy over the previous year, in Moscow on Thursday.
"The special military operation has long had a positive impact on our life: it has united society and helped to purge it of people who did not feel they belonged to Russian history and Russian culture. Some of them left, some stayed … but the overwhelming majority of society has rallied in an unprecedented way," Lavrov stated.
During the press briefing, he also discussed the Red Sea crisis, saying the most important thing was to 'stop the aggression against Yemen'.
"The more the Americans and the British bomb, the less willing the Houthis [are] to talk," he said.
The US and UK began strikes on the Houthi positions last week, following attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The Western nations said it was a 'defensive' action to protect shipping, while the Houthis vowed to continue strikes on what they claimed were 'Israel'-linked vessels, in response to fighting in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Lavrov also related a conversation he had previously had with the current German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier - then the foreign minister - about the perceived unfairness of reparations made to survivors of the Leningrad siege.
"I explained to him that people there suffered, died, and helped each other regardless of what nationality someone was. There were Russians, Tatars, and Jews. There were a huge number of nationalities. The answer was that they pay the Jews because they have a law that obliges them to pay the victims of the Holocaust, but the others who were dying in Leningrad were not victims of the Holocaust," Lavrov said.
January 18 marked the 81st anniversary of the breaking of the Leningrad siege, following the Red Army's Operation Spark. The city had been under blockade for 497 days, while the complete liberation of Leningrad took place on January 27, 1944.
One-time payments were announced to Holocaust survivors of the siege of Leningrad in 2008, while it was reported at the time that non-Jewish survivors would also be eligible for compensation under a separate scheme. In 2021, Germany announced that around 4,500 Jewish survivors would also receive lifelong pensions.
Steinmeier has not commented on Lavrov's recollection of the conversation. In 2019, Berlin did announce 12 million euros for Russian veterans and siege survivors, while Russia called for additional 'individual compensations to all living siege survivors'.
The foreign minister also alleged 'historical amnesia' among the German authorities.
"The expositions of memorial complexes dedicated to the end of the Second World War, the expositions that were jointly designed by German and Russian, even Soviet, experts, are all being reformatted in such a way as to remove the Soviet-Russian trace of all these events," he claimed.
Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO.
Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.
'Special military operation rallied our society in an unprecedented way' - Lavrov on impact of Ukraine conflict
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that the military offensive in Ukraine had 'rallied' society 'in an unprecedented way', during his annual press conference on the results of Russian diplomacy over the previous year, in Moscow on Thursday.
"The special military operation has long had a positive impact on our life: it has united society and helped to purge it of people who did not feel they belonged to Russian history and Russian culture. Some of them left, some stayed … but the overwhelming majority of society has rallied in an unprecedented way," Lavrov stated.
During the press briefing, he also discussed the Red Sea crisis, saying the most important thing was to 'stop the aggression against Yemen'.
"The more the Americans and the British bomb, the less willing the Houthis [are] to talk," he said.
The US and UK began strikes on the Houthi positions last week, following attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The Western nations said it was a 'defensive' action to protect shipping, while the Houthis vowed to continue strikes on what they claimed were 'Israel'-linked vessels, in response to fighting in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Lavrov also related a conversation he had previously had with the current German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier - then the foreign minister - about the perceived unfairness of reparations made to survivors of the Leningrad siege.
"I explained to him that people there suffered, died, and helped each other regardless of what nationality someone was. There were Russians, Tatars, and Jews. There were a huge number of nationalities. The answer was that they pay the Jews because they have a law that obliges them to pay the victims of the Holocaust, but the others who were dying in Leningrad were not victims of the Holocaust," Lavrov said.
January 18 marked the 81st anniversary of the breaking of the Leningrad siege, following the Red Army's Operation Spark. The city had been under blockade for 497 days, while the complete liberation of Leningrad took place on January 27, 1944.
One-time payments were announced to Holocaust survivors of the siege of Leningrad in 2008, while it was reported at the time that non-Jewish survivors would also be eligible for compensation under a separate scheme. In 2021, Germany announced that around 4,500 Jewish survivors would also receive lifelong pensions.
Steinmeier has not commented on Lavrov's recollection of the conversation. In 2019, Berlin did announce 12 million euros for Russian veterans and siege survivors, while Russia called for additional 'individual compensations to all living siege survivors'.
The foreign minister also alleged 'historical amnesia' among the German authorities.
"The expositions of memorial complexes dedicated to the end of the Second World War, the expositions that were jointly designed by German and Russian, even Soviet, experts, are all being reformatted in such a way as to remove the Soviet-Russian trace of all these events," he claimed.
Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO.
Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that the military offensive in Ukraine had 'rallied' society 'in an unprecedented way', during his annual press conference on the results of Russian diplomacy over the previous year, in Moscow on Thursday.
"The special military operation has long had a positive impact on our life: it has united society and helped to purge it of people who did not feel they belonged to Russian history and Russian culture. Some of them left, some stayed … but the overwhelming majority of society has rallied in an unprecedented way," Lavrov stated.
During the press briefing, he also discussed the Red Sea crisis, saying the most important thing was to 'stop the aggression against Yemen'.
"The more the Americans and the British bomb, the less willing the Houthis [are] to talk," he said.
The US and UK began strikes on the Houthi positions last week, following attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The Western nations said it was a 'defensive' action to protect shipping, while the Houthis vowed to continue strikes on what they claimed were 'Israel'-linked vessels, in response to fighting in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Lavrov also related a conversation he had previously had with the current German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier - then the foreign minister - about the perceived unfairness of reparations made to survivors of the Leningrad siege.
"I explained to him that people there suffered, died, and helped each other regardless of what nationality someone was. There were Russians, Tatars, and Jews. There were a huge number of nationalities. The answer was that they pay the Jews because they have a law that obliges them to pay the victims of the Holocaust, but the others who were dying in Leningrad were not victims of the Holocaust," Lavrov said.
January 18 marked the 81st anniversary of the breaking of the Leningrad siege, following the Red Army's Operation Spark. The city had been under blockade for 497 days, while the complete liberation of Leningrad took place on January 27, 1944.
One-time payments were announced to Holocaust survivors of the siege of Leningrad in 2008, while it was reported at the time that non-Jewish survivors would also be eligible for compensation under a separate scheme. In 2021, Germany announced that around 4,500 Jewish survivors would also receive lifelong pensions.
Steinmeier has not commented on Lavrov's recollection of the conversation. In 2019, Berlin did announce 12 million euros for Russian veterans and siege survivors, while Russia called for additional 'individual compensations to all living siege survivors'.
The foreign minister also alleged 'historical amnesia' among the German authorities.
"The expositions of memorial complexes dedicated to the end of the Second World War, the expositions that were jointly designed by German and Russian, even Soviet, experts, are all being reformatted in such a way as to remove the Soviet-Russian trace of all these events," he claimed.
Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO.
Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.