Russia accuses West of 'de facto' fighting in Ukraine

UNITED NATIONS, United States — Western powers through their support for Ukraine are "de facto" fighting against Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday, as Kyiv claimed fresh advances on the ground.

"You can call it anything you want, but they are fighting with us, they are straight-up fighting with us," Lavrov told journalists at the United Nations.

"We call it a hybrid war, but that doesn't change things."

Westerners are "de facto fighting against us, using the hands and bodies of Ukrainians," Lavrov said, pointing to the billions of dollars in Western military equipment provided to Kyiv since Russia attacked last year.

He also indicated the US and British intelligence support and the presence of Western military advisors.

Officials in Kyiv reported breaking through Russian defence lines in the south.

And its army said that senior Russian navy commanders had been among dozens killed or wounded in a missile attack on Moscow's Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Crimea.

Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, the Ukrainian general leading the counteroffensive around the Zaporizhzhia area in the south, told US media that the advance was still underway.

Progress

"On the left flank (near the village of Verbove) we have a breakthrough, and we continue to advance further," he told CNN in an interview released Friday.

Progress had been "not as fast as it was expected -- not like in the movies about the Second World War," he added. But it was important, he added, "not to lose this initiative".

Ukraine launched its counteroffensive to claw back territory from Russian forces in June. Progress has been slow, with much of the territory heavily mined.

But Kyiv has in recent weeks reported making strategic advances in the