Lavrov comments on Kiev's ‘cheating'
Moscow has ample reasons to distrust Ukraine and its Western backers given their history of broken promises, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. He accused Kiev of consistently undermining its own interests with each act of 'cheating.'
Russia has 'burned [its] fingers' many times dealing with the West, Lavrov said in an interview with podcasters Mario Nawfal, Larry Johnson, and Andrew Napolitano published on Wednesday.
He stated that the Ukraine crisis could be traced back to at least 2004, when the country's constitutional court 'expanded, without any right, the constitutional procedures' and ordered a third round in a presidential election, resulting in a victory for a Western-aligned candidate.
The 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev, the Minsk agreements, and the 2022 Istanbul peace talks between Russia and Ukraine were also examples of missed opportunities, Lavrov added.
'Had they [Ukrainians] been cooperative and had they delivered on their own initiative, they would still have 1991 borders, minus Crimea, minus some part of Donbass. Every time they cheat, they lose,' the minister stated.
The Turkish-mediated draft truce in 2022 would have transformed Ukraine into a neutral state with some territorial concessions. However, then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Kiev 'don't do it, continue to fight,' Lavrov said.
Following talks between Washington and Kiev on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said Russia's reaction to his proposal of a 30-day ceasefire would inform him on whether Moscow genuinely wants peace.
Lavrov, however, noted that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky had received a hero's welcome in the UK after his clash with Trump at the White House last month.
'It's an indication that they want to raise the stakes and they are preparing something to pressure the Donald Trump administration back into some aggressive action against Russia,' Lavrov said. Moscow will not compromise on 'the fate of the Russian people,' he added, referring to Russian citizens and ethnic Russians in Ukraine.
Lavrov criticized the proposals by several European countries, including the UK and France, to deploy a 'peacekeeping force' in Ukraine. 'If NATO expansion is recognized – at least by Donald Trump – as one of the root causes [of the conflict], then the presence of the troops from NATO countries under any flag, in any capacity, on Ukrainian soil is the same threat,' he warned.
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