Russia’s top diplomat made the relatively rare move of sitting down with a mainstream American news outlet for a sit-down interview, an action that suggests Moscow may wish to clarify its position regarding the war in Ukraine before a larger American audience.
During an English-language interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied that Russia has erred in striking civilian targets in Ukraine, including hospitals, schools and American-owned factories that purport to build electronics for personal consumption.
In the interview, which was conducted remotely and pre-taped earlier in the week, Lavrov also declined to call Russia’s military actions in Ukraine an “invasion” and accused Ukraine of mistreating culturally Russian residents of key border regions.
And he sought to pit the United States against Ukraine and European allies, pointing the finger at Europe for the continuation of the conflict.
“We want peace in Ukraine. He wants, President Trump wants, peace in Ukraine,” Lavrov said. “The reaction to Anchorage meeting, the gathering in Washington of these European representatives and what they were doing after Washington indicates that they don’t want peace.”
Lavrov’s comments indicate that Russia is ceding little ground as the White House looks to broker an end to a three-year war between Moscow and Kyiv that has killed tens of thousands of civilians and displaced millions of Ukrainians. Ukraine has argued that Russia’s military actions, especially strikes against hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, amount to war crimes, and that the Kremlin has misled President Donald Trump by participating in bad faith in talks to end the war.
The network released clips of Lavrov’s interview Friday, in which the Russian diplomat questioned the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and blamed Ukraine for setting back the peace process. That clip also saw Lavrov downplay the odds for a summit between Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, saying that too many items remain unresolved.
It’s unusual for senior Russian officials to join mainstream American outlets for major interviews, let alone a Sunday morning interview with “Meet the Press.” But the appearance suggests Moscow wished to directly explain its negotiating positions with an eye to the show’s core audience in Washington.
The choice of Lavrov is also notable. The seasoned Russian diplomat is known for savvy gestures that have often been interpreted as psychological power plays; he appeared in Anchorage ahead of the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska wearing a sweatshirt with the Russian initials of the former Soviet Union.
The tough talk from Moscow to date hasn’t dissuaded the Trump administration from pursuing a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine. The president at varying points in the conflict has vacillated between lashing Ukrainian leadership and Russian leadership for what it has perceived as obstinance in the peace process.
Vice President JD Vance, in his own interview with “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, argued that “the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three and a half years of this conflict.”
Vance pointed to Putin’s acceptance that Ukraine will retain “territorial integrity” and its own government after the war and that Ukraine will receive security guarantees from allies.
