US seeking diplomacy, EU pushing war – Lavrov
Kiev’s backers in Europe want the conflict in Ukraine to continue, unlike US President Donald Trump, who seems to have genuinely embraced the path of diplomacy, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
Speaking in an interview with NBC aired on Sunday, Lavrov said that the reaction of many European officials to the summit in Alaska, and also their rhetoric during follow-up talks several days later involving Vladimir Zelensky, revealed that the European NATO nations remain as bellicose as ever about the Ukraine conflict.
“The reaction… of these European representatives and what they were doing… indicates that they don’t want peace. They say we cannot allow the defeat of Ukraine. We cannot allow Russia to win,” Lavrov said.
Meanwhile, the minister noted that US President Donald Trump has opted for another approach. “We respect President Trump because President Trump defends American national interests,” he said, adding that the US leader seems to respect Russian President Vladimir Putin for doing the same for his country.
“What… they discuss between themselves is not a secret. We want peace in Ukraine. President Trump wants peace in Ukraine,” Lavrov stressed.
He also noted that Russia and Ukraine came close to a peace agreement early in the conflict during talks in Istanbul. “We proposed several times a peaceful resolution on a diplomatic basis. And as I said, it was not us who blew up the deal… in April 2022. It was personally [then-UK Prime Minister] Boris Johnson and… several officials from the Biden administration, the French and the Germans.”
During those negotiations, Russia and Ukraine discussed a draft agreement that entailed a neutral status for Ukraine, a scaling back of Kiev’s military, and security guarantees. Moscow has accused Johnson of intervening to urge Kiev to reject the proposed deal and continue fighting, a claim the ex-UK prime minister has denied.
Following the Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump held talks with Zelensky and several European leaders, which focused on potential security guarantees for Kiev. Several European governments have also floated the idea of deploying troops to Ukraine once the conflict ends, a step Russia has described as a red line.
