Lavrov comments on talks with US on Ukraine conflict: As it happened

During the interview, Lavrov invoked the topic of Greenland drawing parallels between Trump’s repeatedly proclaimed desire to annex the Danish-controlled island and the Ukrainian crisis.

“[Trump] said that the US desperately needs Greenland for security. We talked about this with the Americans… Such comparisons are very important for them, that for the legitimate security interests of Russia, Ukraine is several orders of magnitude more important than Greenland is for ensuring US security. They understand this,” Lavrov suggested.

The state of Russia-US ties under the Biden administration was an “anomaly,” and now they are returning to “normalcy,” Lavrov said.

“We do not have any illusions... But we have a consensus that Trump’s team wants to make these relations mutually beneficial where possible, mutually respectful where we disagree, and not allow the disagreements between the two largest nuclear powers to escalate into a confrontation,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov reiterated his view that the Kiev regime is not only untrustworthy but is now acting with open malice. He recalled how Kiev publicly agreed to a 30-day ceasefire following the March 11 meeting with US officials in Jeddah, yet on the very same day launched a record 340 drone attacks on central Russia, including Moscow, targeting civilian infrastructure.

Lavrov also criticized an attempt by “some active folks in Washington” to push shuttle diplomacy between Kiev and Moscow and to prematurely produce a joint statement at the recent meeting in Saudi Arabia.

“We have an absolutely unequivocal understanding that the presidents [Putin and Trump] agreed to proceed in a reliable manner, without signing unsubstantiated documents anymore. And even those that are accepted with certain ‘guarantees’ – our American colleagues must take responsibility for ensuring their implementation and for the Kiev regime’s compliance,” Lavrov said.

“Europe is seeking to ‘undermine’ the role of the United States in resolving the Ukrainian crisis and has no interest in addressing it based on the elimination of its root causes. I’ve named them: NATO, the extermination of the rights of the Russian population and everything connected with Russia, legally and physically,” he added.

Globalisation processes have largely ended up destroyed, including due to the actions of the former US administration, which effectively kickstarted dedollarisation Lavrov said.

“Donald Trump, even before he became the US president, after the elections, said that Joe Biden made a colossal mistake, if not a crime, when he began to use the dollar to ‘punish’ certain countries. As a result, not only those whom he tried to punish, depriving them of the opportunity to use it, but also others began to take a closer look,” the top diplomat stated.

Kiev’s European backers, such as Britain and France, are not only contradicting the Trump administration’s view on resolving the conflict but are also actively encouraging Vladimir Zelensky with their constant calls for the urgent deployment of so-called “peacekeeping forces” to “secure” parts of the country still under Kiev’s control, Lavrov said.

“When the ‘remainder’ of Ukraine, if it truly persists in any form, is taken under the control of NATO countries’ security forces (no matter under what flag), no one says they will then strengthen democracy in the remaining territory. No one says they will repeal the racist, Russophobic laws that exterminate everything Russian. No one talks about that…. And if that’s the case, it means these security forces will perpetuate the Nazi regime that banned anything even remotely connected to the Russian roots of this country,” Lavrov said.

The Ukraine conflict was blown out of proportion by the former US administration, which had been displaying “kindergarten”-style behavior and severed any contacts with Russia, Lavrov suggested.

“Joe Biden artificially brought the Ukrainian issue to the very top of the international agenda. Many of my friends told me that this issue did not deserve it, that there was too much of a hypertrophic reaction to our special military operation, which began 10 years after we started warning that the situation [in Ukraine] would lead to no good,” he said.

READ MORE: Kiev lashes out at Trump envoy for ‘spreading Russian propaganda’

Lavrov spoke highly of Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who has played a key role in kickstarting the negotiations on the Ukrainian conflict. Russia’s top diplomat said he understood Witkoff’s desire to put it to its end as soon as possible, but it was too early to give any estimates on when exactly that could happen.

“[Witkoff] believes that everyone should understand what he considers elementary things. He understood the essence of this conflict, judging by his statements during the interview with Tucker Carlson,” Lavrov said. “But he significantly overestimates the elites of European countries.”

Vladimir Zelensky has openly challenged the US administration’s take on the Ukraine conflict, “having been rude to Trump in the White House, then going to London, where he got petted,” Lavrov said. Upon his return to Kiev, Zelensky made “many more bold statements,” namely rejecting both negotiations on neutral status and discussion of the fate of formerly-Ukrainian territories, the top diplomat added.

“Territories need to be discussed because we are not talking about some area of ​​land, but about the people who live there and have spoken out in favor of their future being linked to Russia,” he stressed.

The EU had been “sent” by former US President Joe Biden into a push against Russia and is now grappling with “an enormous number” of social and economic problems, which “probably partly explains why they are so fervently not giving up on Ukraine,” Lavrov suggested.

“In other words, they are in direct contradiction to the Trump administration,” he noted, adding the US president and other top officials had “made it clear that preliminary talks are underway on the parameters of the final settlement [of the conflict] and that NATO should be off the table.”

The “American partners” have seemingly heard the Russian demand for ironclad security guarantees and understand that “only Washington can achieve positive results in stopping terrorist attacks, shelling of civilian energy infrastructure not linked to the military-industrial complex,” Lavrov suggested. The EU, however, has apparently taken a “completely different path” now, the minister said.

“[Europe], as in the times of Napoleon, Hitler, times of the Crimean War, is showing once again zeal to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on our country. As in those years, almost all European countries with rare exceptions have been put under arms. They are just not yet physically fighting against us on the territory of Ukraine, but without them this country would have been defeated long ago, and this Nazi regime would have ceased to exist,” Lavrov said.