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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has praised US President Donald Trump, saying he has "sound reasons" for wanting to end the war in Ukraine, but has accused European powers, who have gathered around Kiev, of seeking to prolong the conflict.
Lavrov said that the United States still wants to be the most powerful country in the world and that Washington and Moscow can never agree on everything, but have agreed to be pragmatic when they have the same interests.
"Donald Trump is a pragmatist," Lavrov told the Russian military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, according to a transcript released by the Russian Foreign Ministry. "His slogan is common sense. This implies, as everyone can see, a change in the ways of doing things."
"But the goal is still MAGA [Make America Great Again]," Lavrov said, referring to Trump's political slogan.
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, sending thousands of troops into the neighboring country and sparking the biggest war in Europe since World War II.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014, after Ukraine's pro-Russian president was ousted from power through protests and Russia annexed Crimea and supported separatist forces in the fight against Ukrainian forces in the east of the country.
On Friday, Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during their meeting at the White House. European leaders later came to Zelensky's defense.
But Lavrov criticized Europe, saying that in the last 500 years Europe has been the focus of "all the tragedies in the world," including colonization, wars, the Crusades, the Crimean War, Napoleon Bonaparte, World War I, and Adolf Hitler.
"And now, after [former US President Joe] Biden's term, the people who came are guided by common sense. They clearly say that they want all wars to stop, they want peace," Lavrov said.
"And who is seeking the 'continuation of the banquet' in the form of a war? Europe," he added.
Lavrov also rejected the European idea of sending a contingent of European peacekeepers and said Russia does not trust Ukraine after the collapse of the Minsk agreements, which were designed to end the separatist war in eastern Ukraine./ REL
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