Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has addressed a sweeping range of international issues in a recent interview, focusing heavily on what he described as constructive signals from US President Donald Trump and his team, while simultaneously criticizing European governments for what he called efforts to sabotage any momentum toward a peaceful resolution in Ukraine.
Below are the key takeaways from Lavrov’s interview with Russia’s Channel 1, which was broadcast in the early hours of Wednesday morning following a marathon 12-hour negotiation session between Russian and American representatives in Riyadh on Monday.
Kiev is fundamentally untrustworthy
Lavrov asserted that the “Kiev regime” is not only breaking all agreements but doing so in ways that seem deliberately provocative. He recalled how Kiev publicly agreed to a 30-day ceasefire following the March 11 meeting with US officials in Jeddah, yet on the very same day launched a record 340 drone attacks on central Russia, including Moscow, targeting civilian infrastructure.
The foreign minister emphasized that this was not an isolated case, but part of a larger pattern. From violations of the Minsk Agreements to broken promises made during Turkish-brokered discussions in 2023, Lavrov painted a picture of a fundamentally untrustworthy government that uses negotiations as a tactical pause – only to regroup and escalate.
“Every time a ceasefire is suddenly declared, Ukraine agrees to it solely because at that specific historical moment it found itself in a hopeless situation on the battlefield. As soon as there was a pause, immediately within weeks or a couple of months, this ceasefire was grossly violated,” the top diplomat stated.
Moscow believes that only a “direct order issued by Washington” can compel Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky to observe any potential truce. “Our position is simple… We cannot take this man’s word for it,” Lavrov said.
EU undermining Trump’s efforts
Lavrov accused European powers – specifically France and the UK – of deliberately undercutting President Trump’s diplomatic overtures. According to Lavrov, European leaders have pushed for so-called “peacekeeping missions” to be deployed in Ukrainian-controlled territories in a bid to lock in Western influence and obstruct a neutral, negotiated settlement.
largest nuclear powers to escalate into a confrontation,” Lavrov added, calling US-Russia ties under Biden an “anomaly,” now giving way to a return to “normalcy.”
Ukraine–Greenland parallels
In one of his more striking analogies, Lavrov invoked Greenland to explain Ukraine’s strategic value to Russia. He recalled how Trump had repeatedly floated the idea of annexing Greenland for US security reasons, arguing that Ukraine is vastly more important to Russia’s national security than Greenland is to the United States.
“We talked about this with the Americans… Such comparisons are very important for them. For the legitimate security interests of Russia, Ukraine is several orders of magnitude more important than Greenland is for ensuring US security. They understand that comparison,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov also criticized Western geopolitical double standards, noting NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s hypocrisy in defending Ukraine’s territorial integrity while downplaying US interests in Greenland, a Danish territory.
Strategic arms control involving China
On strategic arms control, Lavrov maintained that the question of expanding treaties like New START to include China is entirely up to Beijing. He also emphasized that China’s nuclear arsenal is far smaller than those of Russia or the US, and by the same logic any expansion of talks must also include nuclear-armed NATO members like France and the UK.
Lavrov reaffirmed Russia’s support for the Reagan-Gorbachev principle that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” but said a serious resumption of arms control talks with Washington would require a return to mutual respect and a reversal of the current “enemy doctrine” in US and NATO policy toward Russia.
Credit: RT News