Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the EU on Friday of having become an “aggressive and bellicose actor” who is rushing “on the path that NATO has already traced”. The minister’s remarks are more broadly anchored in a Russian speech justifying the offensive in Ukraine by the rapprochement between NATO and kyiv.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused the European Union of having transformed itself into an “aggressive and bellicose” actor in the wake of NATO with the conflict in Ukraine. “The EU has evolved from a constructive economic platform, as it was created, to an aggressive and belligerent player which already displays its ambitions far beyond the European continent”, Sergei Lavrov said during a press conference from Dushanbe, Tajikistan. As such, he judged that “kyiv’s desire to become a member of the European Union is not insignificant”.
Russia, which multiplies the accusations against the EU
More broadly, he accused the Europeans of rushing “exactly on the path that NATO has already traced, thus confirming the trend towards fusion with the North Atlantic Alliance and will, in fact, serve as an appendage” to the ‘NATO, Sergei Lavrov added in the park of an official residence, interrupted by the cries of peacocks. He denounced in passing the remarks of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who went to India at the end of April for a visit intended to strengthen strategic ties with this country which displays its neutrality in the face of the conflict. “The outcome of the war in Ukraine will not only determine the future of Europe, but will profoundly affect the Indo-Pacific region as well,” she said.
Moscow considers the Atlantic Alliance, its old enemy of the Cold War, as an existential threat and has justified its offensive in particular by the Atlanticist ambitions of kyiv and the political and military support of the West for Ukraine. Russia is also stepping up its knife strikes against the European Union, which has imposed an unprecedented round of sanctions on Moscow and is showing its support for Ukraine.