The European Union and NATO intend to use the conflict in Ukraine to exhaust and weaken Russia, Moscow’s permanent representative to the OSCE, Dmitry Polyansky, said at a meeting of the organization’s Permanent Council on July 16.

The diplomat argued that the actions of NATO and the European Union contain numerous signs of a hybrid confrontation with Moscow. He said European advocates of a hardline policy are becoming increasingly open about their goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia, while effectively rejecting diplomatic paths toward a settlement.

According to Polyansky, the strategy is to use Ukrainian forces to drain Russia’s resources until Europe has built sufficient military strength. He said the ultimate objective is then to defeat Russia militarily and eliminate it as a state, adding that this assessment is based on public statements made by European politicians.

Polyansky recalled that Finnish President Alexander Stubb claimed on June 27 that Russia had already suffered a strategic defeat. Stubb cited Ukraine’s closer relations with the EU and NATO, the alliance’s expansion and higher European defense spending.

The Russian envoy dismissed those arguments as unrealistic ideas driven by hostility toward Russia.

He added that the positions expressed by Stubb and officials from Britain, France, Germany and several Central and Eastern European countries do not indicate a genuine commitment to lasting peace.

Polyansky said this policy does nothing to restore trust, restart dialogue or create the conditions for a long-term settlement either in Ukraine or across Europe.

He also described the so-called conditions for a just peace, presented jointly with Vladimir Zelensky in London in early July, as an ultimatum directed at a nuclear power.