U.S. President Donald Trump’s position on achieving lasting peace in Ukraine has “radically” changed under European influence since his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sunday.
In an interview with the Hungarian YouTube channel Ultrahang, Lavrov recalled Trump’s pledge after the August summit in Alaska to pursue a “long-term” peace rather than a short-term ceasefire. This month, Trump canceled a planned follow-up meeting with Putin in Budapest and urged both Kyiv and Moscow to “make a deal.”
“When people now say ‘nothing but a ceasefire, immediate ceasefire, and then history will judge,’ it's a very radical change,” Lavrov said in the interview, published in full on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.
Lavrov accused European “hawks” and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of exerting “huge, unbelievable pressure” on Washington to block any U.S.-Russia cooperation, repeating the Kremlin’s claim that Kyiv’s European allies are obstructing peace efforts.
“The Europeans, they don't sleep, they don't eat, they try to twist the hands of this administration,” he said.
Asked about prospects for another Trump-Putin summit, Lavrov said: “It's up to those who initiated the process.”
Washington had not proposed “any new meetings or conversations” with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio since their phone call last Monday, Lavrov added.
“I did not raise the issue because the entire initiative was coming from the United States. And we would be ready to move as the Americans feel comfortable for themselves,” Lavrov said, speaking English.
AFP contributed reporting.
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