Trump’s Ukraine plans ‘scared Europeans to death’ – Lavrov
European leaders were “scared to death” by US President Donald Trump’s proposals for resolving the Ukraine conflict and worked relentlessly to sabotage Washington’s compromise efforts, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
In an interview published on Tuesday, Lavrov accused European NATO members of seeking to prevent Trump from returning to the ideas he had discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last year. He also pointed to a phone call between the two leaders on July 4 this year.
“Europe understands that if the Americans suddenly return to their original proposals... as was the case in Anchorage, Europe was simply scared to death,” Lavrov said. According to him, European leaders “immediately rushed” to coax Trump into abandoning his own initiatives.
Lavrov recalled French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks at a NATO summit in June, at which the French leader had effectively boasted that the Anchorage initiative had been “buried” and that Washington was once again aligned with Europe in a united front against Russia.
“If Western diplomacy comes down to restraining countries that put forward reasonable, balanced, compromise initiatives, then so be it,” Lavrov said. Moscow would then pursue its objectives “not at the negotiating table,” which he said Russia would prefer, “but on the battlefield.”
Lavrov’s remarks come as the Trump administration makes a renewed push to revive stalled diplomacy. US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Putin in Moscow on Saturday for more than three hours before traveling on to Kiev the following day.
The White House said the sides discussed “substantive plans for next steps” toward ending the conflict, while Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov described the meeting as “extremely frank” and said the American envoys had presented a number of ideas on possible avenues toward a settlement.
Lavrov, however, argued that most of the public talk about diplomacy coming from Kiev and its Western sponsors is intended to secure another pause in the fighting and give their Ukrainian proxies time to rearm and regroup. Despite the renewed US effort, Lavrov insisted that no constructive peace negotiations are currently under way.
“Nothing is happening on the diplomatic front,” he said, adding that developments are instead unfolding “on the real front,” where Russian forces are advancing.
The foreign minister also warned that Moscow intends to follow through on threats of retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure. Russia had warned that such strikes would trigger a response “much heavier for Ukraine,” he said, adding: “This is happening now.”
The top Russian diplomat also took aim at London, which has vowed to remain with Kiev to the end. “I feel sorry for Britain,” he said, since that end “will not be a happy one.”
Addressing European preparations for a possible future conflict with Moscow, Lavrov reiterated Putin’s position that Russia has no intention of attacking Europe. If European countries were to attack Russia, however, he warned that it would be “a fundamentally different war” and “very short.”
