Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday (April 12) for what he said was a better understanding of the Ukraine conflict than any other Western leader, Reuters reports.
“When we speak about eliminating root causes of any conflict, including the Ukrainian conflict, this is the only way to resolve the problem and to establish long-lasting peace. Remove root causes,” Lavrov said at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in southern Turkey.
“President Trump was the first and so far, I think, almost the only one among the Western leaders who repeatedly, with conviction, several times stated that it was a huge mistake to pull Ukraine into NATO. And this is one of the root causes which we quoted so many times.”
President Vladimir Putin, who launched Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has long cast Ukraine’s tilt to the West, including its desire to join NATO, as a threat to Russia.
Lavrov’s remarks followed talks in St. Petersburg on Friday between Putin and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff about the search for a peace deal.
Witkoff has emerged as a key figure in the on-off rapprochement between Moscow and Washington. However, Friday’s talks took place at a time when U.S.-Russia dialog aimed at agreeing a ceasefire ahead of a possible peace deal appears to have stalled over disagreements around conditions for a full pause in hostilities.
Asked if there were any direct or indirect contacts by the Ukrainian side at Antalya, Lavrov replied: ‘Not to my knowledge’.
