Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Jan. 20 said that the United States was the only Western country ready to address what he called the “root causes” of the war in Ukraine.
Moscow’s top diplomat made the comments during a press conference in the Russian capital, where he summarized the Kremlin’s foreign policy activities during 2025.
“This position, willingness, and understanding of the need to take into account the interests of partners is fully evident in the approach of the [U.S. President] Donald Trump administration to the Ukrainian settlement,” Lavrov said, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
“It is the only Western country willing to address the root causes of this conflict, which was largely created by Donald Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, and his administration,” he said, adding that Moscow considers this approach by Washington to be “absolutely justified.”
In contrast, Lavrov criticized the European nations for attempting to “undermine” the ongoing negotiations to bring a close to the conflict.
“We are committed, as [Russian] President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly emphasized, to finding a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis. If we look at the history of this crisis, starting in 2014 and especially since 2022, there has been no shortage of goodwill on the part of the Russian Federation when it comes to reaching political agreements,” he said.
“But each time, our Western, and especially our European, neighbors have done everything they could to undermine these agreements. They are behaving in exactly the same way in relation to the initiatives put forward by the administration of Donald Trump, trying in every way to convince the American administration not to negotiate with the Russian Federation.”
Lavrov further stated that Moscow could not allow the West to rearm Ukraine after the conflict, lest Kyiv “pounce again” as a “tool of crazed Western Europeans.”
The Russian foreign minister’s comments came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Washington has “not yet had the strength” to stop Russia, suggesting the Trump administration could still put more pressure on Russia if it wanted to.
“Can America do more? It can, and we really want this, and we believe that the Americans are capable of doing this,” he told reporters in a WhatsApp media chat.
He also said he was ready to travel to Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum (WEF) is currently underway, should documents on security guarantees with the United States and a prosperity plan be ready to sign there.
The Ukrainian leader had been expected to attend the conference, but canceled his trip in the wake of an overnight Russian assault on his country, which targeted its already battered energy infrastructure.
“Undoubtedly, I choose Ukraine in this case, rather than the economic forum, but everything can change at any moment,” Zelenskyy said, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Russia’s second major attack on Kyiv this month left 5,635 apartment buildings without heating, the city’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram, as temperatures dropped to as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
The United Nations’ atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said several substations critical for nuclear safety were affected by the bombardment, while power lines to some other nuclear plants were also impacted.
The Chernobyl plant, the site of the world’s worst civil nuclear disaster in 1986, also lost all off-site power on Tuesday morning, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, Kyiv later stated that the plant had been reconnected.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Friends Read Free
Copy
Facebook
Tweet
