Russia on Sunday accused Western European leaders of obstructing peace in Ukraine, while praising former US President Donald Trump for his diplomatic efforts. Meanwhile, US Vice-President JD Vance said Washington would “keep on trying” to facilitate negotiations, even as a comprehensive deal remains elusive.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the remarks during a sometimes tense interview with NBC, in which he also denied Russia had targeted civilians in Ukraine.
Lavrov said Trump had distinguished himself from the group of European leaders who joined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks in Washington last week, which followed the August 15 summit between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska.
“We want peace in Ukraine. He wants, President Trump wants, peace in Ukraine. The reaction to [the] Anchorage meeting, the gathering in Washington of these European representatives and what they were doing after Washington, indicates that they don’t want peace,” Lavrov said.
Although the Alaska talks did not result in a ceasefire or an agreement for direct talks between Zelenskyy and Putin, the meeting was widely seen as a public relations win for the Russian leader.
Lavrov downplayed Trump’s reported dissatisfaction with the outcome and Washington’s threat of “massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both” against Moscow. When asked whether Putin wants peace, he responded “yes,” and said both Trump and Putin have mutual respect.
He also criticised leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for their support of Zelenskyy during last week’s White House meeting.
European leaders have recently expressed support for providing Ukraine with long-term security guarantees. However, Russia has rejected the idea of European troops being stationed on Ukrainian soil.
While Trump has ruled out deploying US forces, reports on Friday indicated his administration had blocked Ukraine from using US-supplied long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia.
Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Zelenskyy that Ottawa supports robust security guarantees and is not ruling out sending Canadian troops to Ukraine.
Lavrov grew defensive when asked whether Putin was misleading Trump by appearing open to peace while continuing military strikes — including a recent attack on an American electronics plant in western Ukraine.
“It is not for the lawmakers or for any media outlet to decide what President Trump is motivated by. We respect President Trump because President Trump defends American national interests. And I have reason to believe that President Trump respects President Putin because he defends Russian national interests,” Lavrov responded.
Critics, including some from the US right, have warned that Putin may be manipulating Trump both in the context of Ukraine and ahead of the US elections.
Lavrov also rejected allegations that Russia is bombing civilian infrastructure like hospitals, schools, or churches. He repeated Russia’s claim that its targets are military-related: “Our intelligence has very good information, and we target only military enterprises, military sites or industrial enterprises directly involved in producing military equipment for [the] Ukrainian army.”
Appearing later on the same NBC program, Vice-President JD Vance said Russia deserved recognition for showing openness to ending the war, echoing Trump’s repeated claims that he could resolve the conflict “in one day.” However, Vance cautioned that diplomacy is a longer process.
“I think the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three and a half years of this conflict,” he said.
“They’ve recognized that they’re not going to be able to install a puppet regime in Kyiv. That was, of course, a major demand at the beginning. And importantly, they’ve acknowledged that there is going to be some security guarantee to the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
Vance also noted that peace negotiations often take time, warning: “I don’t think it’s going to happen overnight.”
In a comment left unexplained, Vance said: “Should they have started the war? Of course, they haven’t. But we’re making progress.” Trump previously blamed Ukraine for starting the conflict, stating in February: “you never should have started it.”
Vance added that any future sanctions on Russia would be determined “case by case” and reaffirmed the US commitment to diplomacy: “It’s complicated, but we’re going to keep on trying to convince these parties to talk to each other and continue to play the game of diplomacy, because that’s the only way to get this thing wrapped up.”
Lavrov maintained that Russia also wants peace and acknowledged, “Ukraine has the right to exist.” However, he insisted that Ukraine must concede Crimea and the occupied regions of Donbas as part of any agreement.
“In Crimea [they] decided that they belong to the Russian culture,” Lavrov said, referencing the 2014 referendum widely condemned internationally as illegitimate.
On Friday, Democratic Senator Chris Coons told CNN that the US must act decisively: “Putin is not going to stop until we stop him.”
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