The US and UK are setting up continental Europe for a military face-off with Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has claimed.
Lavrov issued the warning during his speech at the Inventing the Future symposium in Moscow on Monday.
Speaking about the Ukraine conflict, the top diplomat stressed that “the Anglo-Saxons [the US and UK] expect to defeat our country with the hands of the Kiev regime, just like Hitler, gathering most of Europe’s countries under the Nazi banner.”
“And, as a back-up plan, in case [Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky’s regime fails, they are preparing continental Europe to rush into a suicidal adventure and enter into a direct armed conflict with Russia,” he said.
Lavrov expressed regret that the ruling elites in many European countries do not see a future for themselves in forming a multipolar world. Instead, they are “seeking salvation from an overseas hegemon,” he said.
He recalled how German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed the announcement in July that the US would place intermediate-range missiles in Germany. According to Lavrov, this was not the only time when Scholz failed to stand up for his country.
“The German government has ashamedly come to terms with the humiliating destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines to the detriment of the fundamental interests of the German economy and the German people,” the foreign minister said.
Senior Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have previously pointed the finger at the US as a likely culprit for the Nord Stream explosions in September 2022.
They have argued that Washington had the technical means to carry out the operation, and stood to gain the most from the destruction of the key pipelines, considering that the attack disrupted Russian energy supplies to the EU and forced the bloc to shift to more expensive US-supplied liquefied natural gas.
Lavrov also described as “reckless” proposals made by Ukraine and some in the West to allow Kiev to use foreign-supplied weapons for strikes deep into Russian territory.
“I will not talk about the senselessness of the very idea of fighting against Russia until victory. At best, this will sharply reduce the chances of potential participants in such a war for any role in a multipolar future,” he warned.