Russia's Lavrov praises Trump's understanding of Ukraine conflict

Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised US President Donald Trump on Saturday for what he said was a better understanding of the Ukraine conflict than any other Western leader.

"When we speak about eliminating root causes of any conflict, including the Ukrainian conflict, this is the only way to resolve the problem and to establish long-lasting peace. Remove root causes," Lavrov said at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in southern Turkey.

"President Trump was the first and so far, I think, almost the only one among the Western leaders who repeatedly, with conviction, several times stated that it was a huge mistake to pull Ukraine into NATO. And this is one of the root causes which we quoted so many times."

President Vladimir Putin, who launched Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has long cast Ukraine's tilt to the West, including its desire to join NATO, as a threat to Russia.

Lavrov's remarks followed talks in St. Petersburg on Friday between Putin and Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff about the search for a peace deal.

Witkoff has emerged as a key figure in the on-off rapprochement between Moscow and Washington. However, Friday's talks took place at a time when US-Russia dialogue aimed at agreeing a ceasefire ahead of a possible peace deal appears to have stalled over disagreements around conditions for a full pause in hostilities.

Commenting on an agreement between Ukraine and Russia to pause strikes on each other's energy facilities, Lavrov said that Moscow has been keeping its word and accused Kyiv of striking Russian energy infrastructure almost every day.

"I gave to our colleagues from Turkey, to (Foreign) Minister (Hakan) Fidan, what we gave to the Americans, to the UN, to the OSCE - the list of facts listing the attacks by Ukraine during the last three weeks against Russian energy infrastructure."

Ukraine has made similar accusations against Russia since the US-backed moratorium was approved.