UK talks with Russia appear to be failing as Liz Truss called ‘dumb and deaf’ leaving Europe on the brink of war

The British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is in Moscow holding talks with her counterpart Sergie Lavrov in the Kremlin discussing the Ukrainian crisis.

Lavrov has accused Truss of refusing to listen and grandstanding on Thursday as it appears talks to stabilise the situation between Russia and Ukraine are rapidly failing.

The British Foreign Secretary held a joint news conference with Lavrov who said, “I’m honestly disappointed that what we have is a conversation between a dumb and a deaf person…Our most detailed explanations fell on unprepared soil.

“They say Russia is waiting until the ground freezes like a stone so its tanks can easily cross into Ukrainian territory.

“I think the ground was like that today with our British colleagues, from which numerous facts that we produced bounced off.”

Truss accused Russia of threatening Ukraine as they have over 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border and also in Belarus.

Truss told her counterpart, “I can’t see any other reason for having 100,000 troops stationed on the border, apart from to threaten Ukraine.

“And if Russia is serious about diplomacy, they need to remove those troops and desist from the threats.”

Russia has presented the West with a list of demands to guarantee its security and warned that they feel threatened by NATO allies placing thousands of troops and military hardware in Eastern Europe.

Russia has also said that the West has refused thus far to rule out the Ukraine being a member of NATO, and Vladimir Putin said this week that if the country does join the alliance then there will be a nuclear war in Europe.

Truss told Lavro, that “no one is undermining Russia’s security, that is simply not true” and she added, that is it “perfectly proper” for Ukraine to defend themselves and seek new alliances.

Lavrov accused the Foreign Secretary of not varying her tone during their two-hour meeting and Truss had ignored his explanations and continually repeated demands made before.

Boris Johnson warned on Thursday that Europe is facing the “most dangerous moment” as the “fates of nations” will be decided “by a handful of great powers.”

On Monday the Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a bone chilling warning that if he does not get his own way there could be a nuclear war in Europe.

The Russian leader said “do you understand” if the “Ukraine joins NATO” then Europe will be pulled into a “war” with Russia.

Putin warned, “There will be no winners, and you will be pulled into this conflict against your will.

“You won’t even have time to blink your eye when you execute Article 5 (collective defence of NATO members).”