President Donald Trump called Russia a “paper tiger,” pointing to Russia’s failure to win the war against Ukraine swiftly.
Russia’s top diplomat has accused NATO and the European Union of declaring war on Russia and using Ukraine to wage it, prompting pushback from Western diplomats and NATO leaders, who called the claim a distortion of reality and say it is Moscow that has “brought war back to Europe.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the remarks to fellow diplomats at a G20 meeting of foreign ministers at the United Nations in New York on Sept. 25. Lavrov accused Western powers of trampling on the U.N. Charter out of “neocolonial ambitions,” leading to increased global instability and regional conflicts.
“Another clear example is the crisis in Ukraine provoked by the West, through which NATO and the EU have already declared a real war on my country and are directly involved in it,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov and other Russian diplomats have made similar remarks in the past, accusing NATO powers of seeking to establish Ukraine as a bulwark against Russia on its border, and of expanding the defensive military alliance ever closer to Moscow, which the Kremlin finds threatening.
NATO has repeatedly denied any hostile intentions with respect to Russia, instead accusing Moscow of seeking to expand its regional sphere of influence through aggression.
“Russia has brought war back to Europe and has teamed up with China, North Korea, and Iran to expand their capabilities and their ability to exert influence,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said during a Sept. 25 speech to cadets at West Point.
“But history shows that North America and Europe working together is a winning combination. Our adversaries know this.
“Our enduring commitment to NATO’s Article 5—that an attack on one is an attack on all—sends a powerful message.
“Any aggressor must know that we can—and will—hit back harder.”
At the United Nations meeting where Lavrov spoke, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper responded to the Russian diplomat’s remarks with criticism.
“No amount of false fantasy world distortions, misinformation, and propaganda from the Russian representative about the causes of the war will convince anyone,” she said, while condemning what she called Russia’s “unprovoked war of aggression” against Ukraine.
By Tom Ozimek
