Putin's foreign affairs minister accuses European Union and NATO of declaring war on Russia

Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday accused both the European Union (E.U.) and NATO of declaring "real war" on Russia and directly participating in the conflict the Eurasian country has had with Ukraine since it decided to invade it in 2022. "A clear example is the crisis in Ukraine, provoked by the collective West, through which NATO and the European Union … have already declared a real war on my country and are directly participating in it," Lavrov said during his speech at a meeting of G20 foreign ministers at the United Nations.

Following his remarks, U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper strongly criticized Lavrov, saying there was an "unprovoked war of aggression" by the Kremlin, which has refused to accept a peace deal with Ukraine, despite numerous calls by the Trump administration to end the armed conflict. Cooper even assured that no amount of "false fantasy world distortions, misinformation and propaganda from the Russian representative about the causes of the war will convince anyone."

In addition to Cooper, other European leaders strongly criticized the Kremlin for its unwillingness to sit down at the negotiating table to seek an end to the war in Ukraine. One of these was the EU's high representative for foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, who called Tuesday for greater international pressure against Russia to stop its actions in Ukraine. "So long as there are no signs that Russia’s goal of subjugating Ukraine has changed, I ask you to help build international pressure on Russia to stop killing and engage in meaningful negotiations," Kallas commented.