European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, are openly “preparing for war against the Russian Federation”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has claimed.
European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, are openly “preparing for war against the Russian Federation”, Russia’s Foreign Minister has claimed.
Sergey Lavrov made the incendiary comments at a press conference on the country’s diplomatic activities over the past year, according to state news agency TASS. “If you read the statements of European politicians and leaders – Kaja Kallas, Ursula von der Leyen, [Friedrich] Merz, [Keir] star, [Emmanuel] Macron, [Mark] Rutte, they are seriously preparing for war against the Russian Federation and, in fact, they do not hide it,” Lavrov said.
Regarding Ukraine, Russia should “address the root causes of this crisis,” he said, arguing that the West has tried for “many years” to make Ukraine a threat to Russia’s security, establish a foothold against Russia “on our borders” and “encourage the openly Nazi regime that came to power as a result of the 2014 coup.”
Referring to the Ukrainian government as a “Nazi regime,” Lavrov reiterated a Kremlin narrative that sees the Russian invasion of Ukraine as justified by the need for “denazification.” Russia considers the government that came to power after the 2014 Maidan protests and the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych to be illegitimate and backed by the West.
Lavrov added that the Ukrainian government “has set a course for the legislative and physical extermination of everything Russian: education, language, culture, media, including the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”
