Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Wednesday commended former U.S. President Donald Trump for attributing the Ukraine conflict to efforts to admit Kyiv into the NATO military alliance.
Trump has repeatedly blamed the war on his successor, Joe Biden, insisting that the nearly three-year conflict would “never have started” had he been in office in 2022.
“He is the first, and so far, the only Western leader who has publicly and loudly said that one of the root causes of the Ukrainian situation was the previous administration’s aggressive push to bring Ukraine into NATO,” Lavrov said during a question-and-answer session with lawmakers in Russia’s State Duma.
Lavrov’s remarks come a day after U.S. and Russian officials held their first high-level talks in over three years in Saudi Arabia.
Trump’s stance on Russia has raised concerns in Ukraine, where officials fear that his approach to diplomacy could sideline Kyiv in future peace negotiations and force the country into making significant concessions.
Since taking office last month, Trump has reshaped U.S. foreign policy, tying military aid to Ukraine to its access to rare minerals while echoing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s views on the conflict.
In a January press conference before his inauguration, Trump directly blamed Biden for escalating tensions by supporting Ukraine’s NATO membership bid.
“A big part of the problem was that Russia, for many years—long before Putin—said: ‘You could never have NATO involved with Ukraine,’” Trump told reporters on January 7.
“And somewhere along the line, Biden said: ‘No, they should be able to join NATO.’ Well, then, Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feeling about that.”
Trump’s position has further strained U.S.-Ukraine relations, as his administration reassesses Washington’s role in the ongoing conflict.
