Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused NATO and the European Union (EU) on Thursday of declaring a “real war” with Russia and directly participating in the conflict.
“A clear example is the crisis in Ukraine, provoked by the collective West, through which NATO and the European Union … have already declared a real war on my country and are directly participating in it,” Lavrov said during his speech at a G20 meeting of foreign ministers at the United Nations, according to a translation by Russian-state media TASS.
United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper slammed Lavrov, denouncing the Kremlin’s “unprovoked war of aggression.”
Cooper said no “amount of false fantasy world distortions, misinformation and propaganda from the Russian representative about the causes of the war will convince anyone,” according to Reuters.
On Tuesday, President Trump suggested for the first time that Ukraine could win the war and regain the land it has lost since Russia invaded in late February 2022, adding the country could “maybe even go further than that.”
“With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, while also writing that Russia’s military is a “paper tiger,” which the Kremlin later dismissed.
Other European leaders renewed their calls for adding more pressure on Russia to come to the negotiating table.
“So long as there are no signs that Russia’s goal of subjugating Ukraine has changed, I ask you to help build international pressure on Russia to stop killing and engage in meaningful negotiations,” Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said on Thursday.
In recent days, European leaders have expressed openness for NATO members to shoot down Russian jets if they breach the country’s airspace, incidents that have recently occurred in Estonia, Poland and Romania.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Thursday said in a Fox News interview that he supports President Trump’s call for members of the military alliance to down Russian fighter jets if they enter their airspace, but only after going through all other options first. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also said Wednesday that shooting down Russia’s fighter planes that enter NATO member airspace is “on the table.”
