Russian FM denounces US, West in UN address

Russia's top diplomat denounced the United States (US) and the West on Saturday as self-interested defenders of a fading international power structure, but he didn't discuss his country's war in Ukraine in his speech to the UN General Assembly.

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"The US and its subordinate Western collective are continuing to fuel conflicts which artificially divide humanity into hostile blocks and hamper the achievement of overall aims. They're doing everything they can to prevent the formation of a genuine multipolar world order," foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"They are trying to force the world to play according to their own self-centered rules," he said.

Ukraine's seats in the assembly hall were empty for at least part of Lavrov's speech. An American diplomat wrote on a notepad in her country's section of the audience during Lavrov's speech.