Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov
© TASSRussian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov
The Russian ambassador to Washington says the United States has prolonged the war in Ukraine to profit from its sales of military equipment and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to European countries.

"The White House cannot escape responsibility for prolonging the conflict and killing innocent people. However, the United States continues with its maniacal persistence to adhere to the tactics of war of attrition by exhausting everyone — Ukrainians, Russians, Europeans as well as ordinary Americans," Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said in an interview with Sputnik that was published on Wednesday.

"There are several reasons for this, one of them being the presence of economic interest. The desire to 'skim the cream' through the mass sale of military equipment and LNG supplies: only business, nothing personal," Antonov added.

The ambassador said the United States was waging war with Russia "until the last Ukrainian."

He said that US officials often said they would not talk to Russia about Ukraine without the participation of Ukraine and that it was up to Kiev to decide at what point to sit down at the negotiating table.

"It is not clear what these words have more of: hypocrisy or banal unwillingness to admit one's own mistakes," the ambassador said.

The ambassador cited "the macroeconomic course" of Western countries as the root cause of most of the current world problems, while insisting that the Kiev government was a puppet state controlled by a more powerful government or organization.

"The decision-making center on the fate of Ukraine is located somewhere, but not in Kiev. Everyone could see this in March, when one shout from Washington was enough for the [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky regime to nullify all the agreements reached during intensive contacts between the two countries," he said.

Antonov warned last month that a decision by Western countries to sell more weapons to Ukraine posed a threat to Russian interests and raised the risk of a direct military confrontation between Russia and the West.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, claiming that the war was meant to "de-Nazify" the country.

Russia has since annexed four Ukrainian regions. Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to protect those regions.